Aditya Birla Group firm Grasim Industries on Saturday reported 45.61 percent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,305.19 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31.

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The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,583.12 crore during the January-March quarter of the previous fiscal, Grasim Industries said in a regulatory filing.

However, its revenue from operations was down 11.27 percent during the quarter to Rs 19,901.54 crore as against Rs 22,430.71 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal.

Grasim Industries' total expenses were at Rs 18,559.45 crore in Q4 FY 2019-20 as against Rs 20,138.25 crore.

Revenue of Grasim Industries from viscose pulp, viscose staple fibre and filament yarn segment declined 19.90 percent to Rs 2,102.28 crore as against Rs 2,624.81 crore a year ago.

"The VSF sales were impacted during the last 10 days of the Q4FY20 due to lockdown. The domestic grey VSF prices softened sequentially in Q4FY20 in line with global prices but the overall performance improved QoQ on the back of better cost management, higher speciality sales and lower input cost," it said.

Revenue from cement business UltraTech was down 13.13 percent to Rs 10,745.62 crore from Rs 12,370.61 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal.

Revenue from chemicals segment fell 23.55 percent to Rs 1,290.37 crore compared to Rs 1,687.93 crore in the fourth quarter of 2018-19.

Revenue from financial services segment - Aditya Birla Capital - was up 2.29 percent to Rs 4,810.34 crore from Rs 4,702.50 crore a year ago.

"The NBFC and HFC businesses continue to have diversified portfolios with a focus on growing select segments. Our strong focus is on quality of the book with reduced ticket sizes across the board," it said.

Revenue from others segment stood at Rs 1,148.87 crore during the January-March quarter, down 12.41 percent from Rs 1,311.75 crore in the year-ago period.

For the fiscal 2019-20, Grasim Industries net profit jumped over two-fold to Rs 6,677.48 crore. It was Rs 2,744.74 crore in the previous year.

This was "aided by write back of deferred tax liabilities and lower exceptional charge in the current year," the company said.

Its revenue from operations in the fiscal was Rs 77,625.10 crore, marginally up 0.55 percent. It was Rs 77,200.25 crore in 2018-19.

Moreover, in a separate filing Grasim Industries informed the BSE its board in a meeting held on Saturday has recommended a 200 percent dividend, which is Rs 4 per equity share of face value Rs 2 each for the year ended March 31, 2020.

On the outlook, Grasim Industries said in the near-term, the demand of the company's products will be impacted by the COVID-19-led general economic slowdown.

The company has initiated various measures to reduce its fixed costs and conserve cash as part of its comprehensive business continuity plan.

"The company with its strong financial, operational excellence and diverse product portfolio (Cement, Financial Services, Viscose and Chemicals) is well poised to withstand temporary disruptions and sustain leadership across its businesses," it added.