Heidelberg Q1: PAT sinks 37% to ₹30.6 Cr as fuel costs crush margins despite 5% revenue growth

HeidelbergCement India opened FY27 with a classic cost-squeeze quarter: standalone revenue rose ~5.1% YoY to ₹628.1 Cr (volumes +3.6% to 1,299 KT, pricing +1.5%), but PAT collapsed 36.7% YoY to ₹30.6 Cr and EPS halved to ₹1.35 from ₹2.13. Sequentially it was also weak — revenue down 2.8% QoQ and profit off 32% from Q4's ₹45.2 Cr — so this is neither a seasonal artifact nor a topline story; it is a margin story. EBITDA fell 24.5% YoY to ₹66.8 Cr and EBITDA margin compressed 418 bps to 10.6% (14.8% a year ago), while EBITDA per tonne dropped 27% to ₹514.

The driver is on the cost line, not demand. Per-tonne total operating cost including freight rose ~6.4% YoY, which management attributes to higher raw material, power and fuel costs "mainly due to the West Asia situation" — power & fuel expense alone was ₹167.0 Cr and freight ₹97.2 Cr. Net profit margin fell to 4.9% from 8.0% a year ago. There is no exceptional item this quarter (the ₹8 Cr Labour-Code charge sat in FY26), so the decline is fully underlying — a ~37% adjusted drop, not an optics distortion.

The stock went into the print at ₹153.64, up 0.9% over the past month of trading.

Against its own last-call framing this reads as a miss: on the Q4 FY26 concall management sounded confident about passing on ₹100–160/tonne of cost increases in the near term, but the ~6.4% per-tonne cost rise clearly outran the 1.5% price gain this quarter, and volume growth of 3.6% trailed its own 7–7.5% Central-India demand guidance. On the structural agenda there was one confirmatory step: the company received consent-to-establish from the MP Pollution Control Board for the Khandwa (Dongaliya) blending & grinding unit it had flagged as FY27 capex, and it continues to source over 50% of power from non-grid sources. No formal profit guidance is on record and no brokerage consensus for this small-cap surfaced, so the street-vs-actual read is unknown. Alongside results the board also cleared the re-appointment of independent director Jyoti Narang. The setup into Q2: profitability now hinges entirely on whether fuel costs ease and pricing sticks, since volumes are already near peak capacity utilisation.