India's largest private sector steel major, Tata Steel has reported a lower than expected consolidated net profit of Rs 433.5 crore during the quarter till March 2012.

The net profit fell 89.62 per cent in the quarter to Rs 433.5 crore from the same quarter of the previous year. The net sales of the company rose just 1.25 per cent to Rs 33,860 crore during the quarter. Analysts were expecting a net profit of Rs 1,025 crore and net sales of Rs 33,673 crore during the quarter. The Consolidated EBITDA of the company fell 27 per cent to Rs 3,040.34 crore during the quarter. The

"The Indian operations registered robust performance in FY12 amid growth concerns in the domestic market," Tata Steel managing director H. M. Nerurkar said in the release.

The company said that it will pay a dividend of Rs 12 a share. The company performance is expected to be boosted this year due to the start up of the brownfield expansion at Jamshedpur. The work on the company's greenfield project in Odisha is also on track.

Tata steel is one of the ten largest steel companies in the world and its European operations account for two-thirds of its global capacity of about 28 million tones.