On Thursday, May 22, attention turns towards five government-owned enterprises: ONGC Ltd., Oil India Ltd., IRCON International Ltd., Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL), and NALCO, as they present their quarterly results which were announced post-trading hours on Wednesday.
NALCO, against the market expectations, registered a robust quarter. Its Alumina and Aluminium divisions both demonstrated strong performance. The Guinea Bauxite issue also adds to the optimistic outlook for Alumina pricing.
In terms of financials, NALCO put forth impressive numbers. The company’s revenue soared by 47.2% compared to last year, reaching a milestone of ?5,267 crore. Furthermore, its EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation) saw a more than twofold rise, seeing a 151% surge to ?2,830 crore.
Unlike NALCO, ONGC Ltd. didn’t quite hit the expectations with its financial report. Although its revenue outperformed predictions, ONGC’s profit plummeted over 20% compared to the previous quarter, underperforming market forecasts.
Interestingly, ONGC’s EBITDA remained stable on a sequential basis. An enhanced exploratory expenditure played a major role in boosting ONGC’s EBITDA, which observed a threefold increase to ?4,173 crore from a previous ?1,467 crore for the December quarter.
Meanwhile, for the period ending in March, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) surfaced with a decrease in both its revenue and profitability indices. Although the company predicted achieving its annual revenue target of ?21,000 crore, it fell marginally short of this figure with an actual total revenue of approximately ?19,800 crore for the entire year.
RVNL’s profit margins remained stationary for the March quarter. This, despite the modest underperformance in the company’s projected yearly revenue.
Concurrent with RVNL, IRCON International too, experienced a year-on-year dip in revenue and profitability. IRCON’s margins suffered a shrinkage of nearly 100 basis points compared to last year.
Even so, IRCON International managed to hit its forecasted full-year revenue target. The company previously estimated this figure to be within the ?10,000 crore and ?11,000 crore bracket. It posted matching results to its profit margin predictions as well.
Finally, focusing on Oil India, the company’s profitability seemed to benefit from a significant surge in ‘other income’. The ‘other income’ saw an exponential increase, soaring by 251% to ?664 crore for the quarter.
However, Oil India’s EBITDA took a downward trajectory, with a 7% fall. Alongside this, the company’s profit margins shrank by almost 500 basis points from the previous quarter.
In summary, these five state-run firms presented a mixed bag of results. NALCO showcased a strong performance, even exceeding expectations. Meanwhile, both ONGC and RVNL underperformed in some areas while also showing promise in others.
IRCON International posted disappointing year-on-year results but met its revenue targets head-on. Finally, Oil India showed an increase in profitability owing to higher other income, despite a decline in EBITDA and profit margins.