Tata Steel, part of the salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, has narrowed its consolidated net loss for the fourth quarter to ₹1,168 crore due to non-cash pension curtailment charges.
The steel-maker had reported a net loss of ₹3,042 crore in the year-earlier period.
Exceptional loss
Tata Steel’s reported an exceptional loss of ₹4,069 crore in the quarter, taking analysts by surprise as they anticipated the steel major to report a net profit of about ₹1,000 crore.
The company reported a loss in spite of a 30.42% growth in revenue to ₹35,305 crore in the March quarter. Mr T.V. Narendran, Managing Director, Tata Steel India and South East Asia, commenting on the results said, “Tata Steel continued to outperform the market in this quarter as well. We recorded robust sales across all our target segments and our overall volumes stood at 3.21 million tonnes which was higher by 7% sequentially.
“Our Kalinganagar facility, which continues to ramp up smoothly, is well positioned to serve the expected increase in demand in FY18 and beyond.”
Tata Steel U.K. completed the sale of its Speciality Steels business for a total consideration of £100 million.
Mr. Koushik Chatterjee, Group Executive Director (Finance and Corporate), said: “The Consolidated EBITDA for Tata Steel Group was in excess of Rs 17,000 crore for the fiscal year 2017, which is the highest in the last 6 years. This is on the back of a 1200 basis points of expansion of EBITDA in the fourth quarter compared to the previous year, of which 600 basis points expansion was in India and 1600 basis points in Europe."
Shares of Tata Steel closed up marginally at Rs 457 in a firm Mumbai market on Tuesday. The results were announced after closure of market hours.
Mr Hans Fischer, MD & CEO of Tata Steel in Europe, said, "Steel imports into Europe rose by a further 9% last year which continues to restrict domestic growth. We must continue our transformation programmes to improve our competitive performance and continue to focus on developing innovative products and services for our customers.”
