04 Feb , 2025 By : Debdeep Gupta
Shares of Tata Chemicals took a beating and fell over 4 percent on February 4, weighed down by the company's poor Q3 earnings. The company reported a net loss of Rs 21 crore for the December quarter, a stark turnaround from the net profit of Rs 194 crore that it clocked in the year-ago period.
At 09.48 am, shares of Tata Chemicals were trading at Rs 905.40 on the NSE.
Lower soda ash prices along with a one-time exceptional loss of Rs 70 crore dragged the company's bottom line. The one-time exceptional loss was on account of expenses related to employee termination benefits, decommissioning of plant and machinery, and other closure-related costs following the cessation of soda ash production at the Lostock plant in Northwich, UK.
Meanwhile, revenue from operations declined 3.8 percent on year to Rs 3,590 crore as compared to Rs 3,730 crore in the same period last fiscal. Operating margin also contracted to 12.1 percent in Q3, down from 14.5 percent in the year-ago period.
“The company’s overall performance was down as compared to the same quarter of the previous year, mainly due to lower soda ash pricing across geographies and higher fixed costs in the US due to a plant production outage during the quarter," R Mukundan, Managing Director and CEO, Tata Chemicals said in an exchange filing.
Looking ahead, Mukundan expects challenges to persist for Tata Chemicals. "In the short-term, the current demand-supply adverse situation is likely to persist but should improve and stabilize over the long term driven by growth sectors based on sustainability trends," he said.
The company's gross debt stood at Rs 6,722 crore as of December 31, 2024, reflecting an increase of Rs 810 crore on year, while net debt rose by Rs 952 crore to Rs 5,329 crore due to lower EBITDA and higher working capital requirements across the US, Kenya, and India.
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