Group Performance Highlights:

• Tata Steel Group’s profit after tax (after minority interest and share of profit of associates) during the financial year 2011-12 (FY'12) was Rs. 5,390 crores (US$1.06 billion) compared to a profit of Rs. 8,983 crores (US$1.77 billion) in the financial year 2010-11 (FY'11). The Group’s profit after tax for Q4 FY'12 was Rs. 433 crores (US$85 million) compared to a loss of Rs. 603 crores (US$118 million) in Q3 FY’12 and a profit of Rs. 4,176 crores (US$821 million) in Q4 FY'11.
• Group EBITDA in FY'12 was Rs. 13,533 crores (US$2.66 billion) compared to Rs. 17,116 crores (US$3.36 billion) in FY'11. Group EBITDA in Q4 FY'12 was Rs. 3,419 crores (US$672 million) compared to Rs. 2,023 crores (US$398 million) in Q3 FY’12 and Rs. 4,782 crores (US$940 million) in Q4 FY'11.
• Group consolidated turnover of Rs. 1,32,900 crores (US$26.13 billion) in FY'12 was 11.9% higher than the turnover of Rs. 1,18,753 crores (US$23.34 billion) in FY'11. The consolidated turnover of Rs. 33,999 crores (US$6.68 billion) in Q4 FY'12 was up by 2.7% from Rs. 33,103 crores (US$6.51 billion) in Q3 FY’12 and by 0.5% from Rs. 33,824 crores (US$6.65 billion) in Q4 FY'11.
• The Group’s steel deliveries in FY'12 fell marginally by 1.1% to 24.22 million tonnes compared to 24.50 million tonnes in FY'11. Q4 FY'12 steel deliveries fell by 6.5% to 6.22 million tonnes compared to 6.65 million tonnes in Q4 FY'11, but rose by 6.5% from 5.84 million tonnes in Q3 FY’12.
• Net debt at the end of March 2012 increased slightly to Rs. 47,697 crores (US$9.38 billion) compared to Rs. 46,660 crores (US$9.17 billion) at the end of March 2011.
• Turnover at Tata Steel India in FY12 increased by 15.4% to Rs. 33,933 crores (US$6.67 billion) from Rs. 29,396 crores (US$5.78 billion) in FY'11. Q4 FY’12 sales of Rs. 9,479 crores (US$1.86 billion) were up 13.7% from the Rs. 8,341 crores (US$1.64 billion) of Q4 FY'11 and up 13.1% from the Rs. 8,382 crores (US$1.65 billion) of Q3 FY'12.
  
  EBITDA in FY'12 at Rs. 11,559 crores (US$2.27 billion) was down by 0.6% from Rs. 11,625 crores (US$2.29 billion) in FY'11. Q4 FY’12 EBITDA of Rs. 2,975 crores (US$585 million) was down 3.3% from the Rs. 3,076 crores (US$605 million) of Q4 FY'11, but 13.7% higher than the Rs. 2,618 crores (US$515 million) of Q3 FY'12.
• Turnover in Tata Steel Europe in FY'12 increased to Rs. 82,153 crores (US$16.15 billion) from Rs. 73,844 crores (US$14.52 billion) in FY'11. Q4 FY’12 sales were Rs. 19,923 crores (US$3.92 billion) compared to Rs. 21,488 crores (US$4.22 billion) in Q4 FY'11 and Rs. 20,535 crores (US$4.04 billion) in Q3 FY'12. FY’12 sales increased by 3.7% over FY’11 as per Tata Steel Europe’s reporting currency.
  
  EBITDA in FY'12 was Rs. 1,777 crores (US$349 million) compared to Rs. 4,691 crores (US$922 million) in FY'11. Q4 FY’12 EBITDA of Rs. 146 crores (US$29 million) was down from the Rs. 1,557 crores (US$306 million) of Q4 FY'11, but recovered from the loss of Rs. 781 crores (US$153 million) of Q3 FY'12.
• The Board of Directors of the Company has recommended a dividend of Rs. 12 per equity share for the financial year ended March 2012.

Financial Performance Analysis:

Consolidated Financial results summary (under Indian GAAP) for the year ending March 31, 2012

All figures in US$ million, unless specified

For the purposes of converting all financial numbers to US$ for all comparable periods, a US$/Rs. exchange rate of 50.87 has been used throughout this document.

Executive Comment

Tata Steel Managing Director Mr HM Nerurkar said: “The Indian operations registered robust performance in FY’12 amid growth concerns in the domestic market. The resilience of the Indian operations was maintained due to customer centric programmes, all-round improvement in operations and a focus on enhancing the proportion of value-added products across profit centres. Performance in FY’13 is expected to be boosted by the start-up of the brownfield expansion at Jamshedpur, where trial production has begun. Work on the greenfield project in Odisha is on track. The South East Asian operations are expected to perform better in FY’13, on the back of cost reduction measures, a healthy order book position and product-mix improvements. I extend my appreciation to employees for their singular contribution in making this year a success against heavy odds.”

Tata Steel Europe MD & CEO Dr Karl-Ulrich Köhler said: “The continuing eurozone crisis kept EU steel demand well below pre-crisis levels in the March quarter. In addition, operational difficulties that affected strip product output caused the European operations to perform worse than in the year-earlier period. But there was an improvement in performance over the third quarter, when the cost-price squeeze caused by high raw materials volatility was at its most extreme. The realisation of benefits from cost saving and management improvement programmes contributed to this better performance. The Company also met the first-year delivery targets on its Long Products restructuring by the end of March. Renewed investment and improvement initiatives in the Strip Products businesses will begin to bring further benefits as this financial year progresses.”

Financing Developments:

a) Tata Steel deleveraged its Balance Sheet by taking the following steps in FY’12:

i. Prepayment of Rs. 1,000 crores (US$ 197 million) in respect of a Rupee Term Loan in September 2011.
ii. Prepayment of US$200 million of a US$500 million JPY ECB Loan facility in March 2012.
iii. Prepayment of Rs. 1,500 crores (US$ 295 million) of syndicated Rupee term loan facilities raised for the 2.9 mtpa expansion in March 2012.

b) A new Unsecured Rupee Term Loan facility of Rs. 2,000 crores (US$ 393 million) with a tenor of 5 years was tied up with SBI in March 2012, of which Rs. 500 crores (US$ 98 million) was drawn down by the close of FY’12.

Corporate Developments:

The Siam Industrial Wire Co Ltd (SIW), an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Steel Limited (TSL), and Nichia Steel Works Ltd (NSW) of Japan, an affiliate of Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC), signed a Joint Venture Agreement on April 5, 2012 to set up a facility to produce 36ktpa of galvanised wire at Rayong, Thailand. SIW will hold 60% and NSW 40% of the equity capital of the Joint Venture Company. The project will be set up at a capital cost of approximately THB 700 million (US$23 million) and is expected to come on stream in 2013.

Disclaimer
Statements in this press release describing the Company’s performance may be “forward looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws and regulations. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied. Important factors that could make a difference to the Company’s operations include, among others, economic conditions affecting demand/supply and price conditions in the domestic and overseas markets in which the Company operates, changes in Government regulations, tax laws and other statutes and incidental factors.