Great Eastern Shipping Company group has posted a 97.18 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 439.6 crore (Rs 4.40 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2004, compared to Rs 222.94 crore (Rs 2.23 billion) in the last fiscal.

The board has recommended a final dividend of Rs 4 per share for 2003-04, resulting in an outflow of Rs 85.88 crore (Rs 858.8 million), the company said in a release on Friday.

Total income on a consolidated basis also increased to Rs 1,470.44 crore (Rs 14.70 billion) during the period under review from Rs 1033.83 crore (Rs 10.34 billion) in FY03, it said.

On a standalone basis, the net profit rose to Rs 471.13 crore (Rs 4.71 billion) [Rs 227.29 crore (Rs 2.27 billion) in FY03] on total income of Rs 1426.35 crore (Rs 14.26 billion).

In the fourth quarter, the net profit and total income grew to Rs 184.77 crore (Rs 1.85 billion) and Rs 478.88 crore (Rs 4.79 billion).

For 2003-04, the shipping division contributed around 71 per cent to the total revenue and 68 per cent to the profit before tax and interest whereas the offshore division contributed around 23 per cent to total revenue and 23 per cent to PBIT.

The main driver of Q4 performance was an increase in shipping tonnage by 87 per cent especially in the high earnings crude tankers.

Higher deployment of ships in the spot markets, both in tankers and dry bulk carriers, coupled with very strong freight rates contributed significantly to the surge in profits.