Textile segment sales in the first quarter ended June 30, 2015 grew 10.74 per cent year over year at diversified Indian manufacturer, Sintex Industries Ltd. In a BSE filing, the textile division of Sintex Industries reported sales of Rs 171.92 crore in the first quarter of fiscal 2016, up 10.74 per cent from Rs 155.24 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal. Profit before tax and interest of the textile segment in the reporting quarter, however, rose higher at 16.26 per cent to Rs 20.51 crore from Rs 17.64 crore in the first quarter of the prior fiscal. Overall consolidated sales, which also includes the plastics division, grew slower at 9.40 per cent to touch Rs 1,467.55 crore from Rs 1,341.37 crore in the corresponding quarter of fiscal 2015, up 9.40 per cent. Driven by higher employee benefit expense and depreciation and amortisation expense, expenditure in the quarter under review climbed 10.31 per cent to Rs 1,315.64 crore as against Rs 1,192.61 crore in the prior fiscal first quarter. Purchase of stock in trade and other expenses too drove up overall expenditure during the first quarter at Gujarat based Sintex Industries. Purchase of stock in trade surged 22.36 per cent to Rs 45.85 crore, employee benefit expense soared 21.9 per cent to Rs 187.74 crore, both from the first quarter of fiscal 2015. Depreciation and amortisation expense rose steeply to Rs 76.35 crore, up 39.75 per cent, while other expenses climbed 22.56 per cent to Rs 215.95 crore. Growth in profit before other income, finance costs and exceptional items was slower at just 1.81 per cent year on year at Rs 155.56 crore. But again driven by a stupendous rise in other income, first quarter of fiscal 2016 profit before finance costs and exceptional items expanded 12.12 per cent from the same quarter of earlier fiscal to Rs 174.14 crore. Sintex Industries posted a massive gain in other income at Rs 18.57 crore in the reporting quarter as against Rs 2.51 crore from the first quarter of last fiscal. The textiles to plastics major was also able to keep its finance costs in check, which grew at just 1.74 per cent year over year to Rs 66.03 crore in the period under review. This also helped profit after finance costs but before exceptional items to mount to Rs 108.11 crore from Rs 90.41 crore, up 19.57 per cent. The company however recorded higher net foreign exchange losses at Rs 5.68 crore in the first quarter of fiscal 2016 compared to losses of Rs 3.99 crore in the same quarter of earlier fiscal. Profit before tax mounted 18.53 per cent to Rs 102.43 crore, while tax expense also surged 33.21 per cent to Rs 33.77 crore, both growing from the prior fiscal first quarter. Resultantly, net profit ascended slower when compared to the pre–tax growth at 12.43 per cent year on year to Rs 68.65 crore in the reporting quarter.
