Deepak Fertilizers announces Q1 results

9 August 2018: Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (DFPCL) today announced its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2018 (Q1 FY19).  

On consolidated basis, the total income of the Company grew by 74%, from Rs. 1,280.30 crores in Q1 FY18 to Rs. 2,226.19 crores in Q1 FY19.  PBT and PAT recorded a growth of 15% and 10% respectively, from Rs. 49.04 crores and Rs. 33.78 crores in Q1 FY18 to Rs. 56.47 crores and Rs. 37.25 crores in Q1 FY19.   

On a standalone basis, total income of the Company for Q1 FY19 stood at Rs. 1,299.19 crores, PBT stood at 13.10 crores and PAT was Rs. 8.46 crores as compared to Q1 FY18, where revenues stood Rs. 576.08 crores, PBT at Rs. 18.76 crores and PAT at Rs. 13.70 crores. 

On a consolidated basis, chemicals segment reported revenues of Rs. 1,637.53 crores in Q1 FY19 as compared to Rs. 810.83 crores in Q1 FY18, and segment profit stood at Rs. 151.29 crores in Q1 FY19 as compared to Rs. 86.22 crores in Q1 FY18. Industrial Chemicals traded products portfolio recorded a substantial 253% jump in revenues over Q1 FY18.  However, manufactured Nitric Acid and IPA reported a shade lower volume. Due to maintenance shutdown of the company’s key propylene supplier, desired volume of IPA could not be manufactured and Dilute Nitric Acid (DNA) volume was utilized for captive consumption to manufacture other high margin products, which have better contribution as compared to merchant sale of DNA, thereby impacting Industrial Chemicals business.  

As a strategy to become the most preferred solvents supplier to the pharma sector, Company had been growing its volumes of traded solvents. While trading contributed positively to the bottom line, post the clamp down on buyer’s credit facilities by banks, the interest on working capital increased during the quarter. Going forward, the Company intends to consolidate its trading business and focus on high-margin products, leading to lower volumes but better profitability in the forthcoming quarters. In Q1 FY19, Technical Ammonium Nitrate (TAN) recorded noteworthy growth in volumes as compared to Q1 FY18. TAN has recorded growth across its product segments, including encouraging growth in the export segment. As compared to previous year, sectors like mining and infrastructure have witnessed higher growth thereby providing growth impetus to TAN segment. 

Fertilizer segment reported revenues of Rs. 580.14 crores in Q1 FY19 as compared to Rs. 461.69 crores in Q1 FY18, segment profit stood at Rs. 17.05 crores in Q1 FY19 as compared Rs. 26.13 crores Q1 FY18. There were multiple global phosphoric acid and LNG price hikes and a lag in transferring its impact in the new MRPs have led to the underperformance of the segment in the quarter. The Company sold 8,748 tonnes of Sulphur Bentonite in Q1 FY19 as compared to 5,172 tonnes in Q1 FY18, a substantial growth of 69%, strengthening its leadership position in Specialty Fertilisers segment.  With technical snags at the facilities of some of the global phosphoric acid suppliers, there have been short supplies of phosphoric acid to the country and to the company, which has also impacted the quarter. 

Sailesh C. Mehta, Chairman & Managing Director – DFPCL mentioned, “It gives me pleasure to share that, a journey to redefine our business strategy of shifting focus from customers to consumers with an objective of offering differentiated products and solutions and strengthening the core has begun in the right earnest. To help this endeavor, the Company is also investing in onboarding new talent to support the ramp-up. There has been a rise in manpower cost and other costs related to performance improvement initiatives, but this is an investment we are making in building a sustained high performing operation. 

Based on its four decades of proven experience and the growing product demand, the Board today approved capacity expansions of IPA and TAN with a capex outlay of about Rs. 2,350 crores. Additionally, to strategically support the total downstream sectors already in operations, the Board also approved a world scale ammonia facility capex as a backward integration at the cost of approximately Rs. 2,950 crores. All the projects on a standalone basis exceeded the company’s investment viability parameters. The company is at a high-level positive traction with banks and financial institutions for tie-ups on the debt funding. In addition to the inflows from internal generation, the Board has also approved raising of Equity up to Rs. 800 Cr in the Company through various options of securities towards part funding the capex plan, to ensure prudential leverage norms.”