Tata Steel back in the black with Rs7,162 crore Q4 net profit

The board of directors recommended a dividend of Rs25 per fully paid equity share and Rs6.25 per partly paid equity shares.

Consolidated revenue from operations for the January-March 2021 quarter stood at Rs49,977.4 crore, up 38.8 per cent compared to Rs36,009.4 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), on a consolidated basis, for the quarter ended 31 March 2021 stood at Rs14,290 crore while consolidated after-tax profit for the quarter stood at Rs7,162 crore.

Consolidated EBITDA for the full fiscal 2020-21 stood at Rs30,892 crore while consolidated after-tax profit stood at Rs8,190 crore.

“Despite a slow start in the first quarter, we managed to deliver strong performance in India with broad-based, market-leading volume growth supported by our agile business model," said managing director and chief executive officer TV Narendran.

"The fourth quarter performance has been stand out in terms of both earnings and cash flows, and helped the company to report one of the highest underlying performances for the full year in spite of the pandemic related disruptions during the first half of the financial year," said Koushik Chatterjee, executive director and CFO.

Tata Steel achieved the highest ever quarterly crude steel production of 4.75 million tonnes, posting a 3 per cent sequential growth in Q4 FY21. Full yer production for FY21 stood at 16.92 million tonnes.

Steel deliveries grew 16 per cent YoY to 4.67 million tonnes in the fourth quarter while FY21 steel deliveries increased to 17.31 million tonnes despite the pandemic led disruption in the first quarter of the fiscal.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the fiscal fourth quarter stood at a record Rs12,295 crore, showing a  40 per cent sequential growth and a 2.7 times year-0n-year growth. This translates into an EBITDA per tonne of Rs26,309 and an EBITDA margin of 40.9 per cent, while full year FY21 EBITDA stood at Rs28,587 crore, Tata Steel stated in a release.

Tata Steel also posted the highest ever standalone quarterly EBITDA at Rs9,206 crore, showing a 37 per cent sequential and 2.5 times year-on-year growth in Q4 FY21. This translates into an EBITDA per tonne of Rs27,828 and an EBITDA margin of 43.4 per cent. Full year fiscal 21 EBITDA stood at Rs21,952 crore.

Tata Steel BSL, earlier known as Bhushan Steel Ltd, reported its highest ever quarterly EBITDA of Rs2,583 crore, which translates into an EBITDA per tonne of Rs21,648. Tata Steel Long Products also recorded its highest ever quarterly EBITDA of Rs506 crore, which translates into an EBITDA per tonne of Rs29,439y. 

TSBSL and TSLP FY21 EBITDA increased to Rs5,481 crore and Rs1,154 crore, respectively.

Shareholders have approved the merger of Tata Steel BSL with Tata Steel. A joint “Scheme Petition” has been filed with the NCLT to sanction the scheme with effect from 1 April 2019. The merger of Tata Metaliks and Indian Steel and Wire Products with Tata Steel Long Products is also underway, the company stated.

Steel deliveries at Tata Steel Europe grew 17 per cent QoQ and 3 per cent YoY to 2.47 million tonnes in the fourth quarter of FY21. EBITDA improved sharply to £125 million during the quarter.

Tata Steel said it reduced the company’s gross debt by over Rs20,000 crore during the quarter and full year bringing the year-end net debt to Rs75,389 crore, which is 28 per cent lower compared to the previous year-end. The aggressive prepayment of debt has resulted in a sharp improvement of the capital structure metrics with the net debt / equity under 1  and net debt / EBITDA at around the long term target level of 2.44 times.

Tata Steel is planning to reduce its debt levels by more than a billion dollars and also enhance the capital allocation to its strategic capex programme in India to complete the 5 mtpa expansion in Kalinganagar.