Calcutta, May 10: Encouraged by a significant growth in sales and net profit in 2005-06, Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd has declared a 200 per cent dividend for shareholders.

The company has reported a 55.20 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 193.95 crore during 2005-06 compared with Rs 125.06 crore in the previous year. Revenues rose 37.4 per cent to Rs 1,175.35 crore from Rs 933.20 crore.

As on March 31, the company’s earnings per share stood at Rs 8.26 on a face value of Re 1.

Total expenditure, however, went up to Rs 822.87 crore from Rs 573.87 crore in 2004-05. The increase in fuel prices and other material costs largely contributed to this.

The company’s material costs during the year increased to Rs 799.83 crore from Rs 474.15 crore in the previous year.

Balrampur has reported a 49.3 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 79.4 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2006.

Balrampur Chini Mills completed the acquisition of Dhampur Sugar Mills’s Rauzagaon sugar plant on March 28 this year. This mill has a crushing capacity of 7,500 tonnes per day and a power co-generation capacity of 12 mega-watt.

The company is also setting up a new sugar mill in Mankapur in Uttar Pradesh. The plant, with a crushing capacity of 7,000 tonnes per day and a co-generation capacity of 35 mega-watt, is expected to go on stream by November.

These two plants will significantly add to the crushing and power generation capacity of the company.