Air conditioning and commercial refrigeration firm Blue Star Ltd on Thursday reported a 35.58 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 42.64 crore for the second quarter that ended September 30 on higher sales.
The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 31.45 crore in the same period last fiscal, Blue Star Ltd said in a regulatory filing.
Its consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 1,576.24 crore against Rs 1,239.74 crore in the year-ago period.
The total expenses were higher at Rs 1,527.21 crore compared to Rs 1,200.65 crore a year ago.
“The sentiments in the Indian economy continued to be positive despite the ongoing geo-political uncertainties and the impact that the strengthening dollar has on the currency/exchange rates globally,” the company said.
Capex investments by the public and private sectors continued to be encouraging.
Consequently, all the sectors that the company operates in witnessed healthy growth and enabled it to end the quarter on a positive note, Blue Star said.
On the outlook, Blue Star Vice Chairman & Managing Director Vir S Advani said the demand for the company’s products and solutions from the segments in which it operates continues to be good now.
“With the push in infrastructure investments and the commencement of the capacity expansion cycle in the manufacturing segment, we expect order inflows in the Projects segment to remain buoyant throughout the year.
“The low level of penetration of room ACs in India is expected to aid market growth in the room air conditioner business going forward,” he added.
The growing investments in food processing and organised retail sectors also provide an opportunity for the robust growth of the commercial refrigeration business, Advani noted.
“We are hopeful that the softening of commodity prices and a few localisation initiatives will enable us to partly mitigate the impact of the depreciation of the Indian Rupee against the US dollar,” Advani said, adding that he is optimistic about the prospects for the company’s businesses in the second half of the fiscal. PTI RKL BAL BAL
