Jaiprakash Associates Q2 PAT seen down 87% to Rs 16.8 cr

Jaiprakash Associates will declare its second quarter (July-September) earnings today. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect subdued performance from the company with weak cement outlook for the quarter.

Profit after tax of the company is expected to fall 86.9 percent year-on-year to Rs 16.8 crore for the quarter, dented by lower E&C execution and margins, and higher depreciation & interest cost in seasonally weak quarter for both cement and E&C.

Profit will get some support by 70 percent growth in real estate revenue, feel analysts.

They expect engineering and construction (E&C) revenue to fall 5-10 percent Y-o-Y and E&C margin to decline more than 1,000 basis points on high base and slower realty build-out at JP Infra.

Analysts also expect slower turnaround in cement business on better absorption of fixed cost by higher utilisation.

Net sales is seen going up 2.3 percent on a yearly basis to Rs 3,050 crore in three-month period ended September 2013.

During the same period, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation may fall 4.6 percent to Rs 754 crore and operating profit margin may decline 180 basis points to 24.7 percent in the quarter gone by.

Meanwhile, during second quarter, Jaiprakash Associates entered into an agreement with UltraTech Cement to sell its 4.8 MTPA Gujarat plant for Rs 3,800 crore, which will help it to reduce its consolidated debt of Rs 63,000 crore by 6-7 percent.