Bharat Forge Q2 net profit up 51.78% at Rs 214.87 crore

New Delhi: Auto components major Bharat Forge Ltd on Monday reported a 51.78 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 214.87 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, driven by strong performance across verticals and geographies.

The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 141.56 crore in the same quarter last fiscal, Bharat Forge said in a regulatory filing.

Consolidated revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 3,774.19 crore, as against Rs 3,076.39 crore in the year-ago period, it added.

Total expenses in the second quarter were higher at Rs 3,488.43 crore, as compared to Rs 2,885.07 crore in the same period a year ago.

During the quarter, the company registered a strong performance across segments and geographies, Bharat Forge Chairman & Managing Director BN Kalyani said.

"Passenger vehicles has been a standout sector for the company over the past few quarters and it continues to rise driven by market share gains, increasing value addition and order wins from newer geographies and customers," he said.

Kalyani further said, "This sector accounts for almost 25 per cent of our exports and will continue to be a key contributor to the growth of the group." During the quarter, the company's defence vertical, KSSL (Kalyani Strategic Systems Ltd) secured new business worth Rs 1,100 crore taking the executable order book to Rs 3,000 crore over the coming 24 months, he added.

On the international business front, he said, "Excluding the impact of a seasonally weak quarter in the European market, the overseas operations performance has shown improvement consistent with the increase in capacity utilisation of the aluminum business."

He further said, "A sustained path to profitability for the overseas business is going to be driven by a combination of achieving profitability in the aluminum business and product/ manufacturing optimisation in the steel business, all expected to materialize in the next 12 – 18 months."

Commenting on the outlook, Kalyani said, "Barring any untoward global disturbances which may impact demand sentiment, we expect the momentum in our businesses to continue in H2 FY24 performance along with strong cash flow generation."