Bajaj Electricals net jumps on higher demand

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Lighting products and appliances maker Bajaj Electricals Ltd's net profit for the quarter to December rose 90 percent on allround performance, a senior official said on Thursday.

"We have sold a profitable mix of products. All our businesses have shown growth on good demand and our operating margins were also up," Executive Director R. Ramakrishnan told Reuters after announcing the results.

Its appliances business rose 40 percent, lighting, fans and engineering and projects business grew 30 percent, while revenue from luminaires grew 20 percent.

Operating profit margins for the quarter was 10.1 percent, up 2.5 percentage points from year ago.

"We ensured that we retained focus on the bottomline, kept our interest costs under control and managed our working capital well," he said.

Net profit for the Oct-Dec quarter rose to 189 million rupees, while net sales rose 29 percent to 3.65 billion rupees.

He said a slight deceleration in demand could be expected in the near-future if the stock market remained depressed and uncertain. Retail demand could also be hurt as consumers spend less on appliances and accessories for their homes, he added.

Bajaj will be shortly introducing Italian company Nardi Elettrodomestici's gas appliances range in India. Its outstanding order book in the engineering and projects business stood at 2 billion rupees, executable over 4-8 months, he said.

Shares in the company closed up 4.9 percent at 514.80 rupees on a day the Mumbai market fell 0.6 percent.