Kolkata: Power utility firm CESC Ltd reported a 1.3 per cent increase in its standalone profit after tax (PAT) which rose up to Rs 154 crore in the quarter ended December 31 as compared to Rs 152 crore in the year-ago period.
RP Sanjiv Goenka Group's flagship company also registered a sales growth of 3 percent during the quarter. The revenue from operations for the December quarter stood at Rs 1,706 crore, , as against Rs 1,620 crore in the corresponding period of 2016-17 which is a rise of 5.3 percent.
The company's total expenses for the quarter under review was at Rs 1,622 crore as against Rs 1,511 crore in the same period of 2016-17. Responding to a poser on power tariff rise due to the recent coal price revision he refused comment and only said that there will be definitive cost impact.
CESC sources indicated that tariff owing to fuel cost may rise up to around 20 paise per unit.
Responding to a query on Au Bon Pain, Goenka also said that the Group have exited from a joint venture in this regard.and the group is promoting separate brands in restaurants and QSR by the family. Au Bon Pain was promoted by Spencer's which is a subsidiary of CESC. The company had suffered losses.
He announced that the company's subsidiary Spencer's Retail Ltd (SBL) has registered PBDT (Profit before depriciation and tax) positive for the first time in this quarter."We expect PBT(Profit after Tax) positive from April-June quarter which is the first quarter of 2018-19 ," Goenka said.
He added that the retail chain will be opening up 13 new stores by the end of this fiscal. " 7 stores have already come up in these nine months (till December 31) , the remaining six will be completed by March," he said adding that there will be greater focus on apparel and HWP categories and both are high margin categories. "We expect to see more sales growth," he said.
The retail company clocked Rs 570 crore of sales in the December quarter and average sales per square ft was Rs 1,607.