State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) reported a stand-alone loss of Rs 1,361.01 crore for FY20 against a net profit of Rs 3,124.91 crore in the previous year, affected by inventory and currency losses, lower sales and weak refining margins.
Revenue from operations in the fourth quarter was 81,296.23 crore, up from 83,9411.67 crore the previous year.
For the full year, PSU’s net profit fell to Rs 2,683.19 crore from Rs 7,132.02 crore in FY19. Its full-year revenues from operations fell to 3,27,580.78 crore (3,37,622.53 crore).
“Quarterly losses were contributed by two main factors. One is inventory loss, even with marketing. We lost DKK 1,937 because we had a large stock and demand in April and May was very low. Even in the second two weeks of March, demand was low, “BPCL’s CFO N Vijayagopal told Business Line.
“When we plan production, we do it for 2-3 months. It has to come raw, then it is converted into products and sent to different locations. Since it was not possible to stop what was going on (pandemic), we had a much more inventory of not only finished products, but also of crude oil from the end of the refinery to the regional stores, ”he added.
Therefore, volume was high and there was a steep fall in the price of crude oil and products in April and May. All of these resulted in a huge loss of marketing and inventory, ”he said. BPCL also took a currency loss of Rs 1,211 crore, he added.
Lockdown hits demand
The refinery saw a 5.46 percent drop in sales in the fourth quarter as the nationwide shutdown from March reduced demand for diesel and gasoline.
Diesel and gasoline growth swung into negative territory at minus 8.13 percent and 0.83 percent, respectively.
BPCL paid an interim dividend totaling approx. 3600 crore in March, with the government receiving 52.98 percent of this (in line with its stake in the company). The government also received a dividend payout of Rs 327 crore. The dividend payout was much more than the net profit for the year.
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