New Delhi: State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) Thursday reported a 58 percent jump in its March quarter net profit on back of higher refining margin.
Net profit in the January-March period was Rs 2,162 crore compared with Rs 1,369 crore in the same period a year ago, HPCL Chairman and Managing Director Nishi Vasudeva told reporters here.
The company earned USD 7.47 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in the quarter as against a gross refining margin of USD 4.66 a barrel in the fourth quarter a year ago.
It had an inventory loss of Rs 19 crore in Q4 compared with Rs 453 crore gain in the same period previous year.
The company had a revenue loss of Rs 1,051 crore on selling domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene at government controlled rates, which was fully compensated.
"HPCL has posted highest ever profit of Rs 2,733 crore in 2014-15. This is the highest ever profit since its inception 40 years ago," she said.
Net profit in 2014-15 was 58 percent more than Rs 1,734 crore of 2013-14.
"This has been achieved despite the turbulent year where there was huge volatility in both crude oil and produce prices," she said. "The year saw steep fall in international crude prices causing inventory value write-downs, changes due to deregulation of retail diesel prices and re-entry of private sector players into marketing."
Also, this was due to superior marketing performance and effective treasury management, she said.
HPCL achieved highest-ever market sales of 31.95 million tonnes during 2014-15, a growth of 3.2 percent. Domestic sales increased to 31 million tonnes increasing market share to 20.94 percent in PSU category.
The company's refineries maximised crude processing, which resulted in a combined refining throughput of 16.18 million tonnes with a capacity utilisation of 109 percent. The combined GRM during 2014-15 was USD 2.84 per barrel.
Its borrowings stood at about Rs 12,000 crore.
HPCL Board proposed a dividend of Rs 24.50 per share (245 percent) for the year 2014-15 as against Rs 15.50 per share in the previous year.
The dividend would result in a total payout of about Rs 1,000 crore including dividend distribution tax.
"We have created a central Integrated Margin Management (IMM) group for integrating key processes across the crude to customer value chain," she said.
In retail fuels segment, HPCL gained market share for the 11th consecutive year in total motor fuels by recording a market share gain of 0.05 percent to 25.4 percent. It has a market share of 26.5 percent in petrol and 25.1 percent in diesel.
