MOIL reported a stellar third quarter numbers with a seven-fold jump in its standalone net profit to Rs 105.40 crore. Revenue for the quarter rose 29.2 percent to Rs 275 crore. Third quarter sales volumes were 3.48 lakh tonne as against 1.36 lakh tonne year-on-year. FY18 sales is expected to be 11.5 lakh tonnes, said the company’s Chairman and Managing Director MP Chaudhari. Of the sales, 85 percent came from Fines sale. Realisations for Fines were Rs 3,300 per tonne and for non-Fine products was at Rs 10,000 per tonne. Chaudhari said that the company is planning capital investment of Rs 1,500 crore by 2021. The capital expenditure outlay for MOIL is Rs 2,500 crore. The major cost is towards manpower at 53 percent, he said, adding that MOIL is working towards optimising human and other resources cost.Below is the verbatim transcript of MP Chaudhari's interview to Ekta Batra & Prashant Nair.Ekta: What are the sales volumes for Q3 and also for the first nine months of this year? What have the sales volumes been?
A: My sales for the nine months are 913,000 tonne. For the quarter it was 348,000 tonne. As compared to Q3 of last year, it was only 136,000 tonne and total was 586,000 tonne.
Ekta: How is Q4 looking there? What is the sales volume target for FY17 and also what is the target for FY18?
A: It would be around 11,50,000 tonne for the full year; current year as well as next year.
Prashant: What were your realisations in the quarter gone by and could you give us some clarification with regards to the previous quarter?
A: So far as October to December quarter is concerned, the realisation overall was Rs 9,356 per tonne as compared with Rs 5,758 per tonne in earlier quarter that is July to September, 2016. This shows an improvement of around 62 percent. In October to December, 2015 it was Rs 5,681 per tonne.
Prashant: How does your sales volume and value split up with regards to fines and non-fines?
A: It is around 85 percent for non-fines and around 15 percent for fines.
Ekta: What is the difference in the realisations of fines and non-fines?
A: Last quarter, non-fines fetched around Rs 10,000 per tonne and fines fetched around Rs 3,300 per tonne.
Ekta: What is the current cash on book and if you could tell us how you are going to be utilising it as well for expansion and also could you tell us what you are planning to do in terms of paying any dividend?
A: Cash on books is around Rs 2,200 crore and we have investment plans of about Rs 1,500 crore up to 2020-2021. However, further commitments on account of projects which will not be completed during this period will be to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore. It will be altogether around Rs 2,500 crore.
Prashant: What about the dividend?
A: Dividend has been recently declared by the company at Rs 5 per share.
Prashant: So no further dividend?
A: We will take a call on that only after finalisation of our accounts for the complete year.
Ekta: How are you planning on improving your operating mix? Your profitability has improved. Are you carrying out any kind of employee cost reduction?
A: Major cost is towards employees, the manpower cost and that constitutes around 53 percent of my total cost of mining. So the best way to reduce cost is to optimally utilise the manpower and other resources. That is a continuous process; in fact we are working on that.
Ekta: What is the current situation globally in terms of global prices? For example, global manganese prices, we all know, have corrected more than around 30-35 percent. What is your take on the global manganese ore prices?
A: I would talk just about the prices. Some price corrections are seen expected.
Prashant: So, you are saying prices will fall, by how much?
A: Difficult to quantify.
Prashant: But in a month from now or maybe by the end of the quarter, the January to March quarter, prices will definitely be lower than where we are right now, right?
A: We will take a call on February 28.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
Find the best of Al News in one place, specially curated for you every weekend.
Stay on top of the latest tech trends and biggest startup news.
