Buoyed by an impressive nine-month results, Royal Ceramics PLC (RCL) has announced a Rs. 11 per share second interim dividend for FY21.

Purely on earnings, the RCL share on Friday gained by Rs. 53.25 or 19%, to close at Rs. 333.50.

Separately, the Board of Directors of RCL also recommended an increase in the number of ordinary shares of the company by way of a sub-division of shares, whereby 1 ordinary share is to be subdivided into 10 ordinary shares. The subdivision is subject to shareholder approval by way of a special resolution passed at an EGM (as per the new Articles of Association of the company which are to be adopted) and CSE approval.

RCL had more than doubled its profits in the third quarter and first nine months of the 2020/21 financial year following similar growth in its top line.

As per interim results released, RCL’s pre-tax profit at Company level was Rs. 1.2 billion in 3Q, up from Rs. 541 million a year earlier. The nine-month figure was Rs. 1.85 billion, up by 125% from the corresponding period last financial year.

After-tax profit improved by 98% to Rs. 1.4 billion in the first nine months, whilst for 3Q it was Rs. 981 million as against Rs. 389 million a year earlier. 

Net revenue at RCL for nine months improved by 102% to Rs. 8.45 billion, whilst for 3Q it improved from Rs. 2.4 billion to Rs. 4.05 billion. 

At Group level, RCL, which has interests in tiles, aluminium, packaging, finance and plantations, net revenue improved by 28% to Rs. 30.8 billion for nine months and to Rs. 14 billion in 3Q from Rs. 9.4 billion.

Nine-month Group earnings per share was Rs. 29.90 as at 31 December 2020, up from Rs. 17.41 a year earlier, whilst for 3Q it was Rs. 18.15 up from Rs. 9.08. At Company level, it was Rs. 8.85 (3Q) and Rs. 12.65 (nine-month) as against Rs. 3.51 and Rs. 6.40 respectively a year ago. Net Assets per Share as at 31 December 2020 was Rs. 141.30, up from Rs. 131.64 by end FY20.

RCL Group’s tiles and associated products saw revenue increase to Rs. 21.78 billion from Rs. 15.6 billion, whilst its after-tax profit was Rs. 2.8 billion as against Rs. 1.3 billion. 

The sanitary-ware revenue improved from Rs. 1.8 billion to Rs. 2.2 billion and profit amounted to Rs. 157.4 million as against a loss of Rs. 38.6 million. The aluminium business too has turned around with a profit of Rs. 172 million as against a loss of Rs. 44.7 million. Plantation business has reduced its losses to Rs. 92 million from Rs. 377 million.

The packaging business profit has improved from Rs. 178 million to Rs. 216 million, and the finance segment managed to post a figure of Rs. 1 billion, unchanged from last year.

Hayleys listed firms post impressive results