Tata Steel Reports Consolidated Financial Results for 9M

OREANDA-NEWS. Group Performance Highlights:

• The Indian operations recorded Profit after tax of '3,754 crores (USD 683 million) in 9M FY'13 compared to '5,136 crores (USD 934 million) in 9M FY'12. Profit after tax in Q3 FY'13 was '1,046 crores (USD 190 million) compared to '1,351 crores (USD 246 million) in Q2 FY'13 and '1,421 crores (USD 259 million) in Q3 FY'12. The turnover recorded for 9M FY'13 was '27,429 crores (USD 4,989 million) compared to '24,454 crores (USD 4,448 million) in 9M FY'12. EBITDA for 9M FY'13 of '7,984 crores (USD 1,452 million) compared to '8,584 crores (USD 1,561 million) in 9M FY'12. Q3 FY'13 EBITDA was '2,525 crores (USD 459 million) compared to '2,669 crores (USD 485 million) in Q2 FY'13 and '2,618 crores (USD 476 million) in Q3 FY'12. Deliveries totalled 1.89 million tonnes in Q3 FY'13 compared to 1.73 million tonnes in Q2 FY'13 and 1.62 million tonnes in Q3 FY'12.

• The European operations recorded 9M FY'13 turnover of '58,846 crores (USD 10,703 million) and EBITDA of '152 crores (USD 28 million) compared to turnover of '62,230 crores (USD 11,319 million) and EBITDA of '1,632 crores (USD 297 million) for 9M FY'12. Q3 FY'13 EBITDA was a loss of '428 crores (USD 78 million) compared to the Q2 FY'13 EBITDA loss of '40 crores (USD 7 million) and the EBITDA loss of '781 crores (USD 142 million) in Q3 FY'12. Deliveries totalled 3.02 in million tonnes in Q3 FY'13 compared to 3.42 million tonnes in Q2 FY'13 and 3.35 million tonnes in Q3 FY'12.

• The South East Asian operations' 9M FY'13 turnover was '10,343 crores (USD 1,881 million) and EBITDA '259 crores (USD 47 million) compared to turnover of '9,558 crores (USD 1,738 million) and EBITDA of '107 crores (USD 20 million) for 9M FY'12. Q3 FY'13 EBITDA was '144 crores (USD 26 million) compared to '20 crores (USD 4 million) in Q2 FY'13 and the EBITDA loss of '8 crores (USD 1 million) in Q3 FY'12. Deliveries totalled 0.82 million tonnes in Q3 FY'13 compared to 0.77 million tonnes in Q2 FY'13 and 0.66 million tonnes in Q3 FY'12.

• The Group's steel deliveries in 9M FY'13 totalled 17.57 million tonnes compared to 18.01 million tonnes in 9M FY'12. Deliveries in Q3 FY'13 were 5.83 million tonnes versus 6.07 million tonnes in Q2 FY'13 and 5.84 million tonnes in Q3 FY'12.

• Group consolidated turnover was '1,00,061 crores (USD 18,200 million) in 9M FY'13 compared to '98,901 crores (USD 17,989 million) in 9M FY'12. Q3 FY'13 turnover was '32,107 crores (USD 5,840 million) compared to '34,133 crores (USD 6,208 million) in Q2 FY'13 and '33,103 crores (USD 6,021 million) in Q3 FY'12.

• Group EBITDA in 9M FY'13 was '8,286 crores (USD 1,507 million) compared to '10,114 crores (USD 1,840 million) in 9M FY'12. EBITDA in Q3 FY'13 was '2,252 crores (USD 410 million) compared to '2,453 crores (USD 446 million) in Q2 FY'13 and '2,023 crores (USD 368 million) in Q3 FY'12.

• Tata Steel Group's profit after tax (after minority interest and share of profit of associates) for the nine months of the financial year 2012-13 (9M FY'13) was a loss of '529 crores (USD 96 million) compared to the profit of '4,956 crores (USD 901 million) in the nine months of the previous year (9M FY'12). The 9M FY'12 figure included one-off gains of '3,362 crores (USD 611 million) on sale of investments and '685 crores (USD 125 million) from the TCP arbitration settlement. The Group recorded a loss of '763 crores (USD 139 million) in Q3 FY'13 compared to the loss of '364 crores (USD 66 million) in Q2 FY'13 and the loss of '603 crores (USD 110 million) in Q3 FY'12.

• Net debt at the end of December 2012 was '57,981 crores (USD 10,546 million) versus '47,657 crores (USD 8,668 million) at the end of March 2012.

Financial Performance Analysis: Consolidated financial results summary (under Indian GAAP) for the nine months and third quarter ended 31 December 2012

All figures in USD million, unless specified

For the purposes of converting all financial numbers to USD for all comparable periods, a USD /' exchange rate of 54.98 has been used throughout this document.

Executive Comment

Tata Steel Managing Director Mr HM Nerurkar said: "The Indian operations performed steadily despite the overall weak steel demand situation in India. Our ability to achieve sequential volume growth in a difficult market reaffirms the strength of our distribution channels and customer orientation strategy. Government reform initiatives and the reduction in interest rates should help boost steel demand. During the quarter, we continued to ramp up the production from Jamshedpur and we expect to achieve rated capacity utilisation levels by the end of current financial year. The company remains focused on the Kalinganagar Project execution and we have mobilised significant resources on site to achieve the project timelines. "

Dr Karl-Ulrich Kohler, MD & CEO of Tata Steel in Europe said: "Sliding demand was a key problem for European steelmakers in 2012 and this was reflected in our December quarter deliveries. With the restart of the No 4 blast furnace at Port Talbot this week, we have regained our normal operational and logistical flexibility, enabling us to improve our delivery performance and our service to customers. This, together with the improvements we continue to make in our product range and our customer relationships, will further strengthen our ability to make a difference to our customers' business performance."