Ambuja Cements Q2 net up 62.68 pc

New Delhi, July 20 (UNI) Ambuja Cements today said its net profit increased by 62.68 per cent at Rs 877.75 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2007 compared to Rs 327.49 crore for the same period a year ago.

Its total income also shot up by 15.77 per cent at Rs 1513.03 crore for Q2 FY07 against Rs 1306.91 crore during the same quarter previous fiscal.

The country's third-biggest cement maker said its quarterly net profit had been boosted by one-time gains from a stake sale in a joint-venture and higher cement prices.

The company plans capital expenditure of about Rs 3,500 crore during the next two to three years, for augmenting cement capacity by about six million tonnes, it said in a statement.

It will also commission a one-million tonne cement grinding unit at Roorkee in Uttarakhand during the current quarter while the capacity at Rajasthan will be increased from the current 1.5 million tonnes to two million tonnes annually, the statement added.

UNI