Hindalco Industries of the Aditya Birla group, on Tuesday said its consolidated net profit fell 80% due to weak global demand and soft metal prices. The country’s largest metals company said its consolidated net profit, which includes Canadian aluminium major Novelis, totalled Rs 485 crore for the year ended March 2009, compared with Rs 2,193 crore in the previous year.
Consolidated revenue for the year increased by almost 10% to Rs 65,625 crore. Referring to the soft price trend globally, Hindalco MD Debu Bhattacharya said: “We are going through a very challenging environment. I have never seen such a sharp fall in base metal prices within such a short time.” Aluminium prices fell almost 50% in a year, as the global economic slowdown affected demand and customers postponed purchases of cars and consumer goods.
Although, Hindalco didn’t give the financial numbers for Novelis, analysts say the sharp fall in metal sales globally may have affected Hindalco. The company has a consolidated debt of Rs 28,000 crore and a cash balance of Rs 5,000 crore as on March 31, 2009. As a part of its capex plan, the company plans to spend around Rs 25,000—30,000 crore over 3-4 years.
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