Shree Cement MD on double-digit growth, tax-evasion charge & more

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Neeraj Akhoury, MD, Shree Cement, says “we have already declared to the public is that there has been a survey by income tax in our operations. It is not a search, just a survey. We are fully cooperating with the authorities.

At this moment, we have not received any further guidance or directions from the authorities. We are very convinced that Shree remains a tax compliant company. ”Akhoury further says: “Even if you look at our profit before taxes in the last 10 years, that has not reached Rs 23,000 crore.

I do not know from where those numbers are emerging. But as I said, at this stage for me it is enough to say that we are fully cooperating and I am sure this matter will be clarified very soon.”Volumes in the first quarter have been pretty steady, in line with Street expectations. What is the outlook for the year ahead? Do you think that your volume growth will trend up?Yes, we do believe the cement industry demand will continue to grow very strongly and that we are very well positioned to take advantage of this demand growth momentum.

So, double-digit growth is what we would expect going forward in the year.What will drive that double-digit growth then?I would put it around the 13-15% range for this year, 2023-2024, yes.Your realisations have been strong – 3% sequential as against less than half a percent for the industry. This has clearly been above the industry average realisation growth, but is this a one-off or have you made some structural change to achieve this kind of number?I would not go as far as that. It is more of a market mix issue, as well as the fact that we are focussing on some of our product lines which have seen better realisations.