Ambuja Cement Q4 result today; Here's what to expect

Ambuja Cements will announce its quarterly results ended December 31, 2016 on Monday. Volumes of cement industry are expected to decline for October – December 2016 period because of demonetisation and its impact on real estate and construction sector.

Murtuza Arsiwalla and Abhishek Poddar of Kotak Institutional Equities in their report stated that Pan-India players (which also includes Ambuja Cement) are expected to report weaker prices, higher costs and lower volumes due to demonetisation which will result in sequential decline in their earnings.

As per Kotak, cement volumes of Ambuja is expected to be at 5.1 million tonnes, down by 7% on year-on-year (yoy) basis.

Ambuja's profit after tax (PAT) is estimated at Rs 141.7 crore down by 15% yoy. On the other hand, net sales is seen at Rs 2,267.4 crore, down 4%.

Operating profit of the company is projected at Rs 277.2 crore, a drop of 9% yoy.

For overall cement industry, Kotak report said, “The sector is expected to report a 3% yoy decline in cement volumes, compared to 3.7% yoy growth for October-November 2016 (based on DIPP), reflecting the impact of weakness in December 2016.

During last quarter, Ambuja Cements  posted a 79.2% growth in its net profit, at Rs 277 crore compared to Rs 153.57 crore recorded for the same quarter a year ago.