JSW Steel reported a 64.2 per cent drop in profit after tax in the quarter ended June 30 at ₹867 crore compared with ₹2,428 crore in the same period last fiscal on the back of lower sales realisation and higher cost.

Revenue from operations in the first quarter was marginally up 1.7 per cent at ₹42,943 crore compared with ₹42,213 crore in Q1FY24. The company attributed the lower profit to inventory losses and planned shutdown cost.

Steel sales for Q1FY25 stood at 6.12 million tonnes compared with 5.71 mt in the same period last fiscal, up 7 per cent. JSW Steel, led by billionaire industrialist Sajjan Jindal, said the net sales realisation was down 5 per cent on lower domestic steel prices on a year-on-year basis.

Exports in the first quarter fell 29 per cent y-o-y and constituted 10 per cent of sales from the India operations for Q1FY25 compared with 15 per cent sales in Q1FY24.

JSW Steel’s net debt in the three month period shot up by ₹6,283 crore to ₹80,199 crore compared with the end of FY24 because of capex in ongoing expansion projects and investment in the working capital.

The company informed that its 5 mt expansion is nearing completion and the ramp up of the expansion project is expected by the third quarter. The blast furnace and steel melting shop is going to be commissioned by the end of July.

The board, which met on Friday, to finalise the results also announced the transfer of the under construction 30 mt Odisha slurry pipeline project to JSW Infrastructure Ltd by way of a slump sale. The project cost of the pipeline is ₹3,400 crore.

JSW said the transaction would allow efficient and prudent capital allocation of JSW Steel. Subject to shareholders’ and regulatory approvals, the transfer will be done at ₹1,700 crore, which is the aggregate of the fair value of the cost incurred by JSW Steel till March 31.

Wipro net up 4.6%

IT services major Wipro on Friday reported a 4.6 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit for the June quarter at ₹3,003.2 crore but gave a flat sequential growth guidance of (-)1 to 1 per cent even as the CEO affirmed of company’s better positioning.

The Q1 FY25 revenue of the Bengaluru-based firm fell 3.8 per cent to ₹21,963.8 crore.

The firm gave a rather flat outlook for the quarter ending September 2024 and said it expects revenue from the IT services business segment to be in the range of $2,600 million to $2,652 million, translating to a sequential guidance of (-)1 per cent to +1 per cent in constant currency terms.