Sail Q1 net dips to Rs 1,326 cr

“Lower sales realisation and higher input cost led to the fall in our profit in the first quarter of the current fiscal,” SAIL Chairman S K Roongta told reporters here.

Steel Authority of India Ltd (Sail) had a net profit of about Rs 1,835 crore in the same period previous year.

However, he said the company undertook measures to remain efficient which led to a saving of Rs 570 crore in the reporting period and the steel firm has a positive outlook for the coming quarters.

“The overall demand scenario in India is encouraging,” he said, adding “there is an upward bias for increasing flat product prices and downward bias on the long products”.
The company may take a decision on prices in a day or two, he added.

Further, sail, Roongta said is looking at issuing fresh equity by way of follow-on public offer to part finance its Rs 70,000 crore expansion project.

“We may look at issuing additional equity to part fund our capital expenditure,” he said.
The government currently owns 85.82 per cent stake. Besides, about 4.59 per cent is with the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the rest is with the public. However, Roongta did not specify any time-frame for the follow-on public offer (FPO).