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Journalism of Courage
The rise in net profit is attributable to low base. We had only Rs 4.6 crore net profit in Q3 FY’12. Besides,the price of cement also went up by 25 per cent during the quarter over the same quarter last fiscal. Our sales too increased by 13 per cent to 12.23 lakh tonnes,” Bidkar said. net sales of the company,which mainly markets its in the Northern region of the country,went up by 39 per cent to Rs
438 crore against Rs 315 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.”However,it will be a tall order to sell over 12 lakh tonnes cement in the current quarter since the Northern region is on an election mode,” he said,adding the company had not effected any price hike since the beginning of the New Year. On share buy-back,Bidkar said the company Board today approved buying back of shares to the tune of Rs 97.5 crore at a price not exceeding Rs 70 per share.”The price is very attractive as it represents a premium of more than 43 per cent over the average share price of last
15 days and 57 per cent premium over the average share price of last 12 months,” he said. JK Lakshmi’s scrips today closed at Rs 61.50 apiece at the Bombay Stock Exchange,down 1.91 per cent over previous day’s closing .After getting the approval of the market regulator Sebi,the buy-back programme is likely to start by March this year and would remain open till February 7 next year,he said. If the buy-back is 100 per cent excercised,promoters’ stake in the company would go up by over five percent to nearly 50 per cent. JK Lakshmi Cement has more than Rs 500 crore cash surplus. “The buy-back proposal reaffirms the company’s belief in its strong fundamentals and future business prospects. Besides being a tax-efficient way of rewarding the shareholders,the buy-back shall enable the company to put a part of the available cash surplus to an optimum use,” he said
