The Reserve Bank of India today released, on its website, the data on the performance of non-financial private corporate business sector during fourth quarter of 2014-15 (January- March 2015).

The data compiled are based on the abridged financial results of 2,712 listed non-government non-financial companies. To facilitate comparison, similar data pertaining to Q3:2014-15 and Q4:2013-14 are also presented. Coverage of companies in different quarters varies to some extent, depending on the date of declaration of quarterly results; however, it is not expected to alter the aggregate position significantly. ‘Explanatory Notes’ containing the brief methodology followed for compilation of data and the glossary of terms are given at the end. The list of tables is given below:

Highlights:

• Sales/Revenue

• Aggregate sales contracted in Q4:FY15 following stagnation in Q3:FY15 (Table 1A).

• Sales growth of the manufacturing sector contracted, impacted by contraction in some of the major industries viz. petroleum products, iron & steel and machinery industries (Table 2A & 5A).

• A sharp contraction of 39.9 per cent (Y-o-Y) is observed in the sales of petroleum products industry group (Table 5A).

• The non-IT services sector witnessed similar growth rate in sales as in the previous quarter (Table 2A).

• The IT sector slowed down to the lowest level observed in 5 years (Table 2A).

• Expenditure: At the aggregate level, expenditure contracted (Table 1A).

• EBITDA (Earnings before Interest Tax, Depreciation and Ammortisation) grew by 3.7 per cent at the aggregate level while it contracted marginally for the manufacturing sector. EBITDA decelerated for the IT sector to a historical low EBITDA growth for the IT sector for over a decade.

• Pricing power, as measured by EBITDA margin remained range-bound (Table 1B).

• Interest Expenses:

• Y-o-Y growth of interest expenses in Q4:2014-15 remained at almost similar levels as observed in the previous quarter (Table 1A).

• Interest coverage ratio (Earnings before Interest and Tax/Interest expenses) improved marginally in Q4:2014-15 as compared to the previous quarter across the sectors (Table 1B, 2B).

• Net Profit

• Net Profit continued to contract in Q4:FY15 at the aggregate level (Table 1A), due to a contraction in the manufacturing sector as well as the IT sector (Table 2A).

• Net profit margin improved except for the IT sector (Table 2B).

Sangeeta Das
Director

Press Release : 2015-2016/10