RCF spurts

Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers gained 4.98% to Rs 117.95 at 9:56 IST on BSE, after the company said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with GAIL India for setting up coal gasification project in Talcher, Orissa.

The company made this announcement after trading hours on Friday, 28 December 2007.

Meanwhile, BSE Sensex was up 249.22 points or 1.23% to 20,456.17.

On BSE, 3,850 shares were traded in the counter. The stock had an average daily volume of 12.25 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The mid-cap scrip had outperformed the market over the past one month till 28 December 2007, gaining 64.74% as compared to the Sensex's return of 6.33%. It had also outperformed the market in the past one quarter, rising 82.83% as compared to the Sensex's rise of 16.86%.

The company's current equity is Rs 551.69. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The current price of Rs 117.95 discounts Q2 September 2007 annualized EPS of Rs 2.82 PE multiple of 41.83.

The two companies decided to jointly implement Coal Gasification Project at Talcher. Synthesis gas produced in the coal gasification plant will be used in production of ammonia, urea and other chemicals. The project will add production capacity of 11.55 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of urea per year. The estimated cost of project is Rs 3200 crore.

In October 2007, RCF entered into a joint venture with RSMML for setting up a 850 million tons per day (MTPD) DAP Plant at Kapasan in Rajasthan.

Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF)'s net profit declined 10.2% to Rs 38.95 crore on 43.3% growth in sales to Rs 1414.18 crore in Q2 September 2007 over Q2 September 2006.

RCF is engaged in manufacturing and distributing fertilizers and chemicals. The industrial products include methanol, methylamines, sodium nitrate, ammonium nitrate melt, ammonium bi-carbonate and others.