(Reuters) – India’s Thermax reported third-quarter profit below market expectations on Tuesday, hurt by a weak order book and higher expenses.
The industrial machine maker’s consolidated net profit fell 51% to 1.16 billion rupees ($13.33 million) in the quarter, from 2.38 billion rupees a year ago, which included a one-off gain of 1.26 billion rupees from the sale of a plot of land.
Analysts had expected a profit of 1.83 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.
Capital goods companies, which rely heavily on government entities for a bulk of their orders, have faced an election-related slowdown in orders in the last few quarters.
With elections at both the federal and state levels during the financial year, ordering activity remained subdued.
Thermax’s order booking dropped 8% year-on-year to 22.96 billion rupees, as no large orders were booked in the quarter.
Its total expenses surged 8% to 23.83 billion rupees, led by a 4% rise in the cost of raw materials.
Revenue from its industrial products segment rose 5.6%, while that from its division which sets up bio-CNG and power plants, rose 3%.
Both together contribute over 88% to the total revenue, which grew 7.9% to 25.08 billion rupees in the quarter, below analysts’ expectation of 26.95 billion rupees.
Peer ABB India will post results later this month.
Thermax’s shares closed 3% lower after the results. ($1 = 87.0530 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)
