Public sector units have weathered the globalfinancialstormbetterthan their private peers, reports PraveenKumar Singh from New Delhi. A comparative study—carried out by business infor­mation provider Dun & Bradstreet In­dia among 30 listed non-financial central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) and 191 listed private firms, each with an income of above Rs 1,465 crore in 2008-09—showed the total sales of CPSUs grew 19.2% against 12.8% in the previous year. In comparison, pri­vate firms recorded a decline in sales growth from 22.1% in FY08 to l9.1%.

CPSUs that recorded more than 100% sales growth in FY09 were Engineers In­dia Ltd and Fertilisers & Chemicals Tra-vancore Ltd, belonging to the capital goods and fertiliser sectors.respectively.

Net profit figures also indicate a healthier performance of public sec-torvis-a-visprivatefirms.Withabetter show on net profit, PSUs also distrib-utedhigherpidend.

Public sec­tor undertakings (PSUs) in In­dia have weathered the economic slowdown better than their private sector counterparts, a study by busi­ness information provider Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) India has revealed.

A comparative study—car­ried out among 30 listed non-fi­nancial central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) and 191 listed private firms, each with an income above Rs 1,465 crore in 2008-09 disclosed that total sales by CPSUs grew 19.2% against 12.8% in the previous year. In comparison, private firms recorded a decline in sales from 22.1 % in FY'08 to 19.1 %.

CPSUs which recorded more than 100% growth in sales in FY'09 were Engineers India Ltd and Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore Ltd, belonging to the capital goods and fertiliser sectors, respectively.

"This signifies that the PSUs dealt with the slowdown in the economy much better than the private companies," D&B India chief operating officer Kaushal Sampat said. However, the per-formanceof private entities was much better in the five years up to March 31,2009 taken together, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.65% against 19.26% CAGR of CPSUs. Net profit figures also indi­cate a healthier performance of public sector vis-a-vis private firms. Although, both categories of firms clocked a fall in netprofit, companies in the pub­lic sector experienced a lower decline of 10.83% against a re­duction of 15.48% in the case of private sector. In fact, the net profit of CPSUs, excluding oil and gas companies, increased 0.33%during2008-09.

With a better show in terms of net profit, PSUs also distrib­uted higher pidend. They re­tained 63% of profits and distributed 37% as pidends, butprivate companies retained 77 % profits and handed out the balance to shareholders. Dur­ing the last financial year, most Bombay Stock Exchange in­dices gave negative returns, but the BSE PSU index registered the lowest negative return.

At-29.58 %, the return of PSU index was much better than -37.94% of BSE Sensex, -42.77% of BSE 500 index and -54.01 % of BSE mid-cap index. During 2007-08 too, PSU index generat­ed 25.41% returns, higher than 19.68% by BSE Sensex and 24.25 % by BSE 500 index.