January-March 2005 was a turnaround quarter for as many as 201 companies.
Backed by a huge 415 per cent rise in other income, these companies bounced back into the black in the last quarter of 2004-2005.
The list includes 36 non-banking finance companies, 21 information technology companies, 17 textiles companies, seven pharmaceutical companies, six power and telephone cables companies and four each from the engineering and media sectors.
These companies have posted an aggregate net profit of Rs 637.41 crore (Rs 6.374 billion) in the quarter ending March 2005, against a net loss of Rs 896.26 crore (Rs 8.962 billion) in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.
Lower interest costs and double-digit growth in the topline also helped these companies to report a sharp reversal in their fortunes.
The aggregate sales of these 201 companies increased by 34 per cent from Rs 4,481 crore (Rs 44.81 billion) in the quarter ended March 2004 to Rs 6,023 crore (Rs 60.23 billion) in the quarter ended March 2005. Interest costs, on the other hand, declined by 19 per cent from Rs 504 crore (Rs 5.04 billion) to Rs 406 crore (Rs 4.06 billion).
Companies, that saw a three-fold increase in their toplines include Dabur Pharma, Eveready Industries, Southern Iron and Steel, RPG Transmissions, Panasonic, AV Kirloskar Electric, Computech International and Birla Ericsson Optical.
Ajanta Pharma, Webel SL Energy Systems, G R Cables, Panjon, Bhansali Engineering Polymers, Aksh Optifibre and Gujarat Carbon reported a topline growth of over 100 per cent during the quarter.
Of the 201 companies, 22 firms reported turnaround after six consecutive quarters of losses. The list includes ITI (Rs 107.75 crore (net profit), RPG Transmission (Rs 24.60 crore), Ecoboard Industries (Rs 5.39 crore), Jaysynth Dyestuff (Rs 3.82 crore), Bharat Immunologicals (Rs 3.35 crore) and Indian Seamless Metals (Rs 3.15 crore).
Thirty-six NBFCs posted a combined Rs 26.08 crore (Rs 260.8 million) net profit in March 2005 quarter against net losses of Rs 25.18 crore (Rs 251.8 million) in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Twenty-nine small IT firms reported Rs 16.43 crore (Rs 164.3 million) net profit (Rs 19.39 crore) net loss) and six cables companies posted Rs 11.39 crore (Rs 113.9 million) net profit (Rs 4.36 crore net loss).
Among cable companies, RPG Transmission reported a net profit of Rs 24.60 crore (Rs 246 million) against a net loss of Rs 10.91 crore (Rs 109.1 million). The company has earned Rs 22.72 crore (Rs 227.2 million) by way of other income during the quarter.
In the media segment, New Delhi Television (NDTV) was in the black Rs 8.61 crore (Rs 86.1 million) net profit against a net loss of Rs 2.64 crore (Rs 26.4 million) in the corresponding period of the previous year.