Aditya Birla Group company Hindalco has declared a substantial increase in its net profit for the three months period ended March 31, 2008.

The company has posted a 49.3% increase in its net profit, which stood at Rs 10,770 million during the quarter, as compared to Rs 7,213 million in the same quarter previous year.

Net sales for the period under review zoomed 5.50% to Rs 50,102 million, whereas total income for the period climbed 5.79% to Rs 51,544 million, when compared with the prior year period.

It posted earnings of Rs 8.75 a share during the quarter, registering 25.43% increase over previous year period.

For the fiscal 2007-08, the company registered a 11.56% jump in its net profit at Rs 2,860.9 crore, as against Rs 2,564.3 crore during the last year.

The net sales for the entire year stood at Rs 19,201 crore, against Rs 18,313 crore last year, up by 4.8 per cent.

The company’s board, at its meeting held on June 20, 2008, recommended 185% dividend aggregating to Rs 2,269 million. Together with the corporate dividend tax of Rs 386 million, the total payout works out to Rs 2,655 million.

Moreover, the directors also approved the issue of equity shares in the ratio of 1:3 for an amount not exceeding Rs 50 billion to the existing shareholders on rights basis.

At 2:30 p.m., the company’s shares declined 6.4%, to trade at Rs 161 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).