ABB Q4 net rises 42% on strong execution, operating profit

ABB India has registered a whopping 42.4 percent growth in profit at Rs 84 crore for October-December quarter. The bottomline growth was driven by strong execution, enhanced productivity, other income and cost take out programs.

"We will continue to push profitable growth initiatives, introduce new products to the market and offer state of the art technology solutions catering to the evolving customer needs," said Bazmi Husain, managing director.

Earnings beat expectations on bottomline and operating income front but revenue was tad below estimates. A CNBC-TV18 poll estimated profit of Rs 82.8 crore on revenue of Rs 2,286 crore for the quarter.

Revenue of the leading power and automation technologies provider grew 1.5 percent to Rs 2,238 crore during October-December quarter from Rs 2,204 crore in same quarter last fiscal, impacted by power systems and power automation segments.

The company follows calendar year as its financial year.

Power systems' revenue dropped 4.1 percent to Rs 648 crore with EBIT margin expansion of 380 basis points and power automation business declined 0.2 percent to Rs 345 crore with EBIT margin falling 200 basis points.

However, power products division reported 2.2 percent growth in revenue with EBIT margin down 40 basis points and discrete automation & motion showed 15.7 percent rise in revenue with 190 bps expansion in margin.

Order book of the company shot up nearly 50 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,487 crore in Q3 while orders for the year were Rs 7,908 crore, an increase of 10 percent compared to previous year. "Order growth was supported by a healthy mix of base and large orders from domestic and export markets, said the company in its filing.

Total expenses declined to Rs 321.8 crore from Rs 340 crore year-on-year while tax cost increased to Rs 51.4 crore from Rs 35.8 crore.

Operating profit climbed 20.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 180 crore and margin spiked 120 basis points to 8 percent in December quarter. Analysts had estimated operating profit at Rs 171 crore and margin at 7.5 percent for the quarter.

Other income surged significantly to Rs 14.7 crore from Rs 0.7 crore on yearly basis.

ABB India has recommended a final dividend of Rs 3.70 per share for the year ended December 31, 2014.

At 13:19 hours IST, the stock was quoting at Rs 1,340, up Rs 72.35, or 5.71 percent on the BSE.