IndianOil among 12 Indian firms join $l bn profit club
New Delhi   01-Feb-2008
Riding on a resurgent economy and a stronger rupee, ranks of billion dollar Indian companies those which have a net profit of over $1 billion are set to swell, if the third quarter numbers are anything to go by. A few short years back, only a handful of Indian companies, largely from the public sector had a net profit of over a billion dollars. This included three oil companies ONGC, IndianOil and Reliance along with the Stale Bank of India. Public sector majors SAIL and NTPC had also crossed a $1 billion a year in profit in the interim. With the exception of Reliance, it was an exclusive public sector affair. After five years of India's biggest bull market and near double digit GDP growth, they are now getting company. Going by the results of the third quarter, number-of new entrants from the IT/i telecom, real estate and commodity sectors will take up the total to a dozen. Some of these such as DLF and NTPC are newly listed companies. Tata Steel, which had acquired British company Corus has recently reported its consolidated results — a net profit of Rs 9,703 crore a little under $2.5 billion for the first six months of FY08. DLF, which came out with its initial public-offering in 2007, will also make the grade. Bharti Airtel, which came out with its numbers on Wednesday has recorded a profit of Rs 4,848 crore over the last nine months, which translates to a profit of $1.23 billion for the period. Anil Ambani's Reliance Communication, which declared Q3 numbers on Thursday, has recorded a profit of $977 million for the first three quarters. Despite their woes stemming from the combined weakness of the dollar and the US economy, IT companies too are moving up. Infosys and TCS have clocked profits of $820 million and $957 million respectively for the first three quarters. Unless the fourth quarter goes drastically wrong, these too should see a net of over a billion dollars.