• Soda ash demand continues to be healthy.
• Price increases enable Company to absorb higher raw material costs
• GCIP integration process commences
• IMACID declares dividend of 20%
• Babrala clocks highest urea production ever; debottlenecking progressing on schedule
• Tight phosphoric acid supply impacts phosphatic fertiliser manufacturing
• Fresh Produce business opens its first distribution centre at Ludhiana
• Nanded Ethanol plant construction begins;
• Board of Directors recommend dividend of Rs 9 per equity share, Payout of 53.53 % (Excluding the income from sale of shares)
• FY08 Financial Highlights
• Standalone
• Normalised PAT at Rs 471 cr – up by 14% over FY07
• FY08 PAT (incl sale of investments) at Rs 949 crore up 114%
• Revenues at Rs 4,076 cr up 2% from FY07
• Basic EPS Rs 42.82, Diluted EPS: Rs 37.89
• Consolidated
• PAT at Rs 964 cr; Normalised PAT at Rs 477 crore Revenues at Rs 6,023 cr
• Basic EPS: Rs 43.51, Diluted EPS: Rs 38.52

Tata Chemicals Limited, a leading manufacturer of chemicals, fertilisers and food additives today announced its audited financial results for the year ended March 31, 2008. The Company is the second largest manufacturer of soda ash and the third largest producer of sodium bicarbonate in the world, apart from being the leader in the Indian market. Tata Chemicals also enjoys leadership in the Indian edible salt market and is the most efficient manufacturer of urea fertiliser in the country.

Commenting on the Company's performance for FY2008, Mr. Homi Khusrokhan, Managing Director, Tata Chemicals, said, "This has been an encouraging and eventful year for us. Our soda ash business has performed very well despite floods at Mithapur and operational difficulties at Magadi. Our urea operations performed strongly with production for the year under review at a record high. Erratic availability of phosphoric acid however impacted our phosphatic fertiliser operations. The new initiatives have also taken off with the commissioning of the first fresh produce collection and distribution centre in Punjab and the Nanded bio-ethanol project. The GCIP acquisition added a new dimension to our soda ash business with access to a significantly low cost natural resource and markets that were earlier not available to us. I look forward to further strengthened performance going forward."

Note:
Consolidated financials indicated in this communication are audited and primarily include those of Tata Chemicals standalone entity, the Brunner Mond Group acquired in December 2005 and the one third stake acquisition in Indo Maroc Phosphore S.A. (IMACID). The consolidated financials in this communication do not include those of Global Chemicals & Industrial Products (GCIP).

Normalised financials reported are adjusted to exclude other income (and includes profit from sale of investments) namely -
In FY2008 – Rs 487 crore (Profit on sale of investments)
Rs 9 crore (Loss on Fertiliser Bonds)
In FY2007 – Rs 32 crore (Dividend from Tata Industries)

The Board of Directors have recommended dividend of 90% involving a total outgo of Rupees 247 Crore and a payout ratio of 53.53% (Excluding the income from sale of shares)

SEGMENTAL PERFORMANCE

A. CHEMICALS

• Domestic sales amounted to Rs 1,586 crore for the year ended March 31, 2008 & PBIT margins for the chemicals business stood at 22% for the year

Soda ash

Performance perspective

• Tata Chemicals continues to command a leadership position in the domestic soda ash market. Sales volumes (including exports) for soda ash for the year ended March 2008 stood at 680 K tonnes.
• Higher input costs, especially those of coal, coke & limestone impacted production. Price increases of soda ash on the back of strong demand, however helped mitigate these threats

Consumer Products

• Tata Chemicals continues to be the market leader in the domestic edible salt market with a 51% share in the national branded segment. Tata Salt's current market share is about 44%and about 7% comes from encouraging sales of I-shakti.
• Tata Salt was adjudged the 3rd most trusted brand by The Economic Times

B. FERTILISERS

• Revenues for FY08 from the fertiliser business were Rs 2,506 crore & PBIT margin was 13% for the year under review
• Babrala recorded its highest urea production this year despite natural gas supply interruptions
• Work on debottlenecking of the Urea plant is progressing on schedule and is expected to be completed by December 2008
• Input prices continue to rise. Sulphur and rock phosphate prices are currently above USD 800 pmt and USD 450 pmt respectively, translating to a ten fold and three fold increase YOY respectively above normal levels
• Unavailability of sulphur has also impacted supply of phosphoric acid thus putting pressure on DAP production

C. FOREIGN SUBSIDIARIES AND JOINT VENTURES OVERVIEW

• High coke and coal prices impacted manufacturing costs adversely in Brunner Mond Europe. However the increase in soda ash prices has helped contain these increases
• The new 50,000 tonnes per year hi-tech sodium bicarbonate plant in the Netherlands has commenced operations. This plant is the first of its kind in the Netherlands and has taken the Company's global sodium bicarbonate production capacity to
• 200,000 tonnes per year. The facility will mainly manufacture higher value pharma grade sodium bicarbonate
• Rising costs of fuel oil and power, increased cost of transportation and political tension have hit operations at Magadi
• Firm international prices of phosphoric acid have enabled IMACID to continue to perform strongly; declaring a maiden 20%dividend. The Company is actively exploring organic & inorganic growth opportunities
• With the firmness in international fertilisers markets likely to continue, it is unlikely that prices of phosphoric acid will soften in the near future

GCIP

• The Company completed the acquisition of the soda ash business of General Chemical Industrial Products Inc. (GCIP), a US chemical company, for USD 1,005 million from Harbinger Capital Partners (the majority shareholder)
• A significant soda ash producer in the USA with a capacity of 2.5 million TPA of natural soda ash, GCIP has mining and manufacturing facilities located at Green River Basin in Wyoming, USA
• The acquisition enables Tata Chemicals access to an extremely low cost natural resource and access to several new markets
• The acquisition was funded through debt & internal accruals. Debt comprises USD 500 million raised via an ECB and a bridge loan amounting to USD 350 million at very attractive rates

D. NEW BUSINESSES

Fresh Produce Business

• The first collection cum distribution centre at Melerkotla, near Ludhiana was formally commissioned in May 2008. The response from the local farmer community has been very encouraging
• The second distribution centre will come up at Kalyan, near Mumbai, land acquisition for which is currently in progress

Bio-fuels Business

• Civil construction at site for the Ethanol project at Nanded has commenced. Plant completion is expected by the end of this year
• Land has been acquired in Madurai for the setting up of a bio diesel pilot plant

F. AWARDS

• The Company received the following awards during the last quarter:
• British Safety Council Award for Business Sustainability
• Dun & Bradstreet American Express Corporate Awards 2007
• Corporate Citizen of the Year Award from the Press Relation Council of India (PRCI)
• Federation of Gujarat Industries (FGI) Award for Excellence in 'Industrial Relations'
• RBNQA award for performance excellence for the Haldia plant

For further information contact:
P.K.Ghose
Tata Chemicals Ltd
Tel.: +91 22 6665 8282
Fax: +91 22 2285 1132
E-mail: pkghose&at;tatachemicals&stop;com

Kirby Furtado
Vaishnavi Corporate Communications
Tel.: +91 22 6656 8787
Mobile: +91 98216 74905
E-mail: kirbyw&at;vccpl&stop;com