CEAT Limited reported flat first-quarter revenue at Rs 1,456 crore, while the company’s net profit jumped 134% to Rs. 121 crore and the EBITDA increased by 65% to Rs 224 crore due to lower input costs.
Anant Goenka, Managing Director, CEAT Limited, said, “In this quarter, our sales growth was flat; however margins have improved largely due to lower raw material cost coupled with improving product mix.”
“Leverage ratios have improved further in this quarter. Debt to equity has come down from 1.0 times in Q1 last year to 0.4 times this quarter. Debt to EBITDA has improved from 2.1 in Q1 last year to 0.8 times this quarter”, he added.
The consolidated EBITDA margins rose to 15.4% in Q1 FY15-16 compared to 9.3% in Q1 last year.
On standalone basis, India operations reported revenue of Rs 1,407 crore. EBITDA increased by 72% to Rs 217 crore on a YoY basis. EBITDA margins went up to 15.4% compared to 9.0% in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Standalone PAT rose by 152% YoY to Rs 118 crore for the quarter.
CEAT is the flagship company of RPG Enterprises, and was established in 1958.
Bharat Gianani, senior analyst at Angel Broking said: “Ceat results were way ahead of our as well as consensus estimates. Softness in raw material prices (both rubber and crude based) coupled with decrease in other expenditure (possibly lower advertising and brand promotion expenses) boosted profitability.”
The company is one of India’s leading tyre manufacturers and has strong presence in global markets, and has a capacity of over 800 tonnes per day.