Adani Group's Cement Producer ACC Sees Net Profit Triple YoY In Q4, Smashing Analyst Expectations

ACC Ltd., on Thursday, reported a fourth-quarter revenue of ₹5398 crore.

The Earnings: The Mumbai-based cement company reported a net profit of ₹748.5 crore, which handsomely beat the ₹451 crore mark that analysts polled by CNBCTV18 had anticipated on average.

The revenue of the company, which is a part of the Adani Group has surged 12.67% from ₹4,791 crore and net profit is up by 217% from ₹236 crore on a year-over-year basis.

The results also compare with the ₹4,914 crore revenue and ₹527.5 crore net profit posted in the quarter prior that ended in December 2023.

The company also announced a dividend of ₹7.5 per share.

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The Thesis: Ambuja Cements has a majority stake in ACC and the stock is also popular among domestic institutional investors, with Life Insurance Corporation of India holding a 6.4% stake in the cement producer as of the latest quarter.

ACC acquired a 55% stake in Asian Concrete and Cements for $93.2 million at the beginning of this year.

This raised its installed capacity to 38.55 metric tons per annum (mpta), thanks to Asian Concrete's Nalagarh and  Rajpura cement plants in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, respectively.

ICICI Direct in a note earlier this month noted that this capacity would increase to 40.8 mpta by the end of financial year 2025-26 due to rising demand, the recent capacity additions, and "synergy benefits from parent company's units."

The ICICI analysts, with their bullish thesis, gave a 12-month target price of ₹3,225 on the stock ahead of the earnings.

Cements Production: The cement industry is relatively saturated, with Aditya Birla Group's Ultratech Cement Ltd. being the other major player besides ACC and Ambuja Cements.

Ultratech, which is set to report its earnings for the fourth quarter on April 29, last week announced it was acquiring a grinding unit with a capacity of 1.1 mpta from India Cements, further cementing its foothold in Maharashtra.

The cement giant is gunning to increase its manufacturing capacity to about 2000 mpta, with an investment of 32,400 crore over the next three years.

Adani Group is plotting its own rise to tackle Ultratech, with an investment of ₹75,000 crores over three years to take the combined capacity of Ambuja and ACC to over 180 mpta from about 80 mpta at this moment.

Price Action: ACC share price traded 1.3% higher at ₹2,590.25 late Thursday.

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Disclosure: The author has a long-term position in ACC parent company Ambuja Cements.