Profits of Birla Corporation, the flagship company of MP Birla Group, jumped more than five times in the second quarter of this fiscal, beating the slowdown blues.

The company, under the chairmanship of Harsh V. Lodha, attributed the spike to a better realisation from the sale of premium and blended cement and cost rationalisation.

This is first quarterly result that BCL announced after the legal dispute over the ownership of the MP Birla group renewed with gusto between the Lodha and Birla family members.

A court appointed committed entrusted to look after the estate of late Priyamvada Devi Birla, wife of late Madhav Prasad Birla, till ownership is conclusively decided by the grant of probate, decided not to support a formula of payment of profit linked remuneration to Lodha.

One of the reasons the committee cited to vote against a resolution on the fixation of Lodha’s salary in the last AGM was declining financial performance of Birla Corp under Lodha’s tenure. The committee took the decision based on a majority vote.

Based on the results of the second quarter and first half, it appears that Birla Corp is on course to make one of the better performances in many years, blunting the criticism faced from the committee of Administrators Pendente Lite (APL) of the estate of Priyamvada Devi Birla.

Birla Corp has recorded a Rs 88.34-crore profit after tax in July-September of 2019-20 on a consolidated basis, compared with Rs 16.29 crore in the same period last year.

In the first half, it posted a profit of Rs 228.96 crore compared with Rs 100.15 crore in the April-September period of 2018-19. Birla Corporation made a full-year profit of Rs 255.70 crore.

Sandip Ranjan Ghosh, chief operating officer of BCL, said the company’s branding and premiumisation strategy was paying off.

“We are focusing on selling blended and premium cement focusing on retail and trade channels where the brand draws the customer,” he said.

Despite an extended monsoon and depressed demand, the company’s sales by volume increased 4.1 per cent year-on-year to 3.2 million tonnes (mt), while 2.65mt of this was sold through the more remunerative trade, or retail, channels.