SAIL registers Rs 2,512-crore profit

By Our Corporate Bureau | 29 May 2004

New Delhi: Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) registered a net profit of Rs 2,512 crore for 2003-04 compared with a loss of Rs 304 crore in the previous year. The company has reported its first net profit in seven years.

For the financial year ended March 31, 2004, SAIL''s turnover rose 26 per cent to Rs 24,178 crore as against Rs 19,207 crore in the previousyear, SAIL chairman, V.S. Jain said.

SAIL has wiped out its entire accumulated losses of Rs 2,765 crore, Jain said. The company has, however, not announced any dividend. Jain added that SAIL would increase its installed capacity from 12.5 million tonnes at present to 20 million tonnes by 2010. He did not put a figure on the company''s long-term investment plans.

The total capital expenditure in the current year would be in the region of Rs 1,500 crore-Rs 2,000 crore as against Rs 1,300 crore last year. Investment plans for the current year are being finalised, he said. The company managed to dramatically bring down its debt-equity ratio from 6.5:1 as on March 31, 2003, to 1.86:1 at the end of the recently concluded fiscal. "We want to maintain our debt-to-equity ratio at 1:1 and do not plan to raise huge funds," he said.