Coal India on Monday reported a consolidated net profit of ₹8,491.22 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, down 17.5 per cent from ₹10,291.71 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
The bottomline was impacted by lower realisation from the sale of coal through fuel supply agreements and e-auction.
The result, however, was better than market expectations, which were concerned with the rising availability of coal from commercial sources significantly displacing e-auction offtake.
Consolidated net profit for the quarter ended September was ₹6,274.80 crore, representing a sequential growth of 35.32 per cent quarter-over- quarter.
Revenues from operations during the third quarter was ₹35,779.78 crore, down 1.03 per cent from ₹36,153.97 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The realisation from coal sales through the fuel supply agreement (FSA) was ₹1,514 per tonne compared with ₹1,532 per tonne, on the back of a reduction in FSA supplies during the quarter to 170.77 tonnes from 172.30 tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The realisation from e-auction was ₹2,671 per tonne compared with ₹3,321 per tonne in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. E-auction volume during the quarter was 19.24 tonnes compared with 15.76 tonnes in the year-ago period.
There was also a 3 per cent reduction in employee benefit expenses during the quarter to ₹11,222 crore from ₹11,574 crore in the year-ago period on account of a decline in manpower to 2,23,886 as of December 31, 2024, from 2,31,058 as of December 31, 2023.
The Coal India board on Monday approved a second interim dividend of ₹5.60 per share of face value ₹10 each. Earlier, on October 25, 2024, the board announced the first interim dividend of ₹15.75 per share.
Coal India scrips at ₹375.40 were down 2.04 per cent over the previous close at the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The public sector miner could see a 4 per cent growth in 2024-25 ending the year with a production of around 806-810 million tonnes (mt). This is below the initial estimate of 838mt and the revised estimate of 823mt for the fiscal.
In 2023-24, Coal India produced 773.65mt, with a year-on-year growth of around 10 per cent.
The mining major is bullish on its growth prospects in 2025-26 with an estimated production of around 900mt.