Tata Steel, which has completed 100 years of existence, on Wednesday made a big leap forward. Thanks to the Corus acquisition, the consolidated financials for the first quarter of 2007-08 reveal that the company’s turnover rose over five times and net profit by six times in the first quarter of the financial year 2007-08. The consolidated net profit stood at Rs 6,388 crore as against Rs 1,014 crore in the same period last year.

Turnover jumped to Rs 31,155 crore during the period under review as against Rs 5,748 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year.

The announcement sent the Tata Steel shares soaring by 9 per cent to Rs 659.85 on the BSE on Wednesday.

The earnings also include an extraordinary item of Rs 4,121 crore, primarily representing actuarial gains due to increase in the yield rates on bonds held by various pension funds of Corus. This is the first time the company reported consolidated earnings since it acquired the UK-based steelmaker in an auction earlier this year in January.

However, in a statement issued by the company, Tata Steel said the cost of borrowings surged in the first quarter because of loans to fund the $12.9 billion takeover of Corus and rising global interest charges. Interest payments surged over 16 times at Rs 892 crore in the three months ended June, compared to Rs 55.3 crore in the corresponding period last year. Servicing loans to pay for Corus totalled Rs 725 crore.

Profit before tax and exceptional items increased to Rs 3,157 crore as compared to Rs1,498 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year.