The company's net profit in the first six months of the previous year stood at Rs 55.25 crore on a turnover of Rs 706.42 crore.

The company's EPS (annualised) has gone down to Rs 15.40 as against Rs 16.79 in the first half of the previous year.

Escorts net profit in the second quarter decreased to Rs 33.60 crore from Rs 34.09 crore recorded in the corresponding period the previous year.

The company's interest burden has increased to Rs 26.09 crore during the six month period this year compared to Rs 21.71 crore in the previous year. In the second quarter, the interest was Rs 16.57 crore as against Rs 10.27 crore in the previous year.

It has shown an outgo of Rs 33.32 crore in the second quarter as excise duty as against Rs 20.77 crore in the previous year.

Escorts profit before tax stood at Rs 71.62crore as against Rs 76.25 crore in the corresponding period the previous year.

The PBT in the second quarter stood at Rs 40.60 crore as against Rs 48.09 crore in the previous year.

Meanwhile, Ballarpur Industries has reported a 103 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 15.48 crore on a lower turnover of Rs 529.79 crore for the first half ended September 30.

The company's net profit and turnover in the corresponding period the previous year stood at Rs 7.62 crore and Rs 677.03 crore respectively.

For the three-month period from July to September, BILT registered a net profit of Rs 7.83 crore.

Gross profit of the company increased to Rs 81.18 crore in this period as against Rs 75.84 crore in the first half the previous year.

The total revenue for the first half is Rs 559.36 crore as against Rs 687.85 crore in the first half in the previous year.

The company has shown an outgo of Rs 4.10 crore from the net profit on account of loss on divestment from joint ventures.

According to the company, theimprovement was mainly due to better operational efficiencies coupled with cost compression at all levels including substitution of imported pulp by own manufactured pulp".

The company's total expenditure decreased for the first half to Rs 473.22 crore as against Rs 607.39 crore for the six months ended September 30, 1997.

The company has said that the improved results indicate signs of stabilisation of the paper market.

The performance for the first six months period ended September 30, 1998 excludes the turnover and other financials of chemical units, which was hived off into a separate company, BILT Chemicals Ltd with effect from April 1, 1998.

The restructuring plan to enable BILT to be a focussed paper company is under active implementation.