Mumbai: Nirma has registered gross sales of Rs 626.49 crore during the third quarter ended 31 December 2002, a growth of 8.14 per cent over Rs 579.34 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The net profit for the third quarter is up 21 per cent at Rs 64.31 crore against Rs 53.17 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. The interest cost has declined significantly from Rs 25.33 crore to Rs 13.13 crore, whereas the depreciation charge has inched up to Rs 31.77 crore against Rs 29.99 crore.

The profit before tax has jumped by 9.90 per cent from Rs 79.49 crore to Rs 87.36 crore. The provision for the current tax has gone up from Rs 5.65 crore to Rs 11.83 crore, and for the deferred tax has gone down from Rs 20.01 crore to Rs 11.04 crore. This translates into an earnings per share of Rs 8.1 for the third quarter of the financial year 2003 as against Rs 6.70 for the corresponding quarter last year.

The figures for the first nine months (April 2002 to December 2002) show a growth of 4.97 per cent in sales from Rs 1736.21 crore to Rs 1822.50 crore. The net profit has grown at a faster rate of 23.31 per cent from Rs 130.77 crore last year to Rs 161.25 crore in the first nine months of the current year.

The company had recorded a sales turnover of Rs 2276 crore and a net profit of Rs 184.71 crore for the full financial year ending 31 March 2002. The nine-month performance translates into an annualised (fully diluted) earnings per share of Rs 27.08 as against an EPS of Rs 21.96 last year.

Interest costs have declined substantially due to a continuing reduction in the borrowings as well as refinancing of debt at lower rates prevailing in the market.

The company believes that it is well positioned to take advantage of the anticipated economic upturn. At the same time, it is reasonably insulated from the vagaries of the price movements of the key input raw materials for detergents, having completed the backward integration.