Rallis India, a Tata enterprise and a leading agrochemical player in India, today announced its financial results for the year ended March 31, 2008.

Year results (April 2007– March 2008)
The company posted profit after tax of Rs125.19 crore registering a significant growth of 115 per cent compared to the previous financial year. This is the highest ever profit achieved in the history of Rallis India. Profit before tax rose to Rs146.17 crore, up by 166 per cent over Rs55.01 crore in the previous year.

Revenues rose by 9 per cent to Rs760.74 crore as compared to Rs700.83 crore last year.

EBITDA margin improved to 12 per cent in the year 2007-08 as against 7 per cent in the previous year.

Its superlative performance during the year has been driven by significant improvements in the operations. The company has also earned an exceptional income of Rs87.38 crore during the year. The exceptional income in the previous year was Rs54.12 crore.

While it has benefited from the exceptional income, the operational improvement has contributed significantly to its profit growth.

Commenting on the company’s performance for the year 2007-08, V Shankar, chief executive officer and executive director, Rallis India said, “Rallis’s strong performance reflects the gains of the various change initiatives undertaken during the year such as Disha and Apollo. I am pleased that the new products such as Applaud, Taqat and Takumi have been well received by the farmers. The process improvements as well as people initiatives have also helped the company to strengthen its core competencies of market access and customer relationships.”

The performance of the company has been driven by the higher volumes of its key brands during the year along with continued focus on value creating processes. Its recently launched brand Applaud has performed extremely well in the rice areas across the country and has become the number one choice of rice growers for control of Brown Plant Hoppers. The company launched four new products in the Indian market during the year namely Takumi, Sedna, Royal and Ishaan. It has obtained more than 20 new registrations in different countries across the globe. The company also obtained a joint registration for one of its key product in the US market during the year. Disha, the enterprise value creation programme and Apollo, the initiative to drive international business growth contributed well to the year’s performance.

Rallis India is one of India’s leading agrochemicals companies, with a century old tradition of servicing rural markets and the most comprehensive portfolio of pesticides for Indian farmers. The company is known for its deep understanding of Indian agriculture, sustained relationships with farmers, quality agrochemicals, branding and marketing expertise and its strong product portfolio. Rallis is also recognised for its manufacturing capabilities and ability to develop new processes and formulations supported by the capability to register new products. It has marketing alliances with several multinational agrochemical companies, including FMC, Nihon Nohyaku, DuPont, Syngenta, Makhteshim Agan and Bayer Cropscience.

The company is also focusing on strengthening its international presence and establishing new capacities for contract manufacturing.

The board has recommended a dividend of 160 per cent for 2007-08, (previous year, 80 per cent) backed by this strong performance.