Profit before tax stood at Rs 40.77 crore in Q4 FY20, up by 3.3% from Rs 39.45 crore in Q4 FY19. Current tax expenses fell 21% to Rs 12.38 crore in the fourth quarter from Rs 15.68 crore in the same period last year.

Standalone net profit rose 19.8% to Rs 32.35 crore on 0.3% rise in net sales at Rs 235.50 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. EBITDA rose 14.7% to Rs 56.3 crore in Q4 March 2020 from Rs 49.1 crore in Q4 March 2019. EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 23.6%, up 280 basis points as against 20.8% in Q4 FY19. Operating margins improved due to marked increase in volume offtake with improved price realizations largely across all products, increase in operating leverage and benign raw material prices.

Total volumes stood at 22,146 Million Tonnes (MT) for Q4 FY20, up by 2.8% from 21,543 MT in Q4 FY19. For the January-March quarter, amines volumes stood at 4,525 MT, amines derivatives volumes stood at 9,030 MT and specialty chemicals volumes stood at 8,591 MT.

On the performance, D. Ram Reddy, managing director commented, "The company has gradually ramped up the manufacturing of Acetonitrile and will steadily continue to do the same in coming quarters. We also anticipate steady improvement in capacity utilization of DMF in FY21, if the better pricing being prevalent in the market over last few months continues to exist. Our subsidiary company too witnessed an improved volume offtake which is a good harbinger for subsequent quarters.

COVID-19 related lockdown had no significant impact on our Q4FY20 earnings given that most of our products fall under category of essential commodities. As our product portfolio largely caters to the defensive end-user segments like pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals etc., we are not likely to witness any drastic fall in demand from our end-industry clients.

Our thrust remains to expand our portfolio of key derivative products alongside entering newer specialty chemicals to gain from both vertical integration and operating efficiencies. We also plan to steadily expand our reach in the export market over medium to longterm, given the eagerness of global companies to reduce their exposure to Chinese sources of suppliers."

Balaji Amines is a leading manufacturer of Aliphatic Amines in India. The company's business is broadly classified into three segments - amines, specialty chemicals and derivatives. It caters to host of industries like pharma, agro chemicals, paint stripping & resins, rubber cleaning etc.