Cigarettes-to-hotel major ITC Ltd has reported a 10.5 per cent growth in net profit at ₹2,635 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014.
Net profit for the year-ago period stood at ₹2,385 crore.
Net sales during the period rose 2.05 per cent to ₹8,800 crore against ₹8,623 crore in the year-ago period.
However, cigarettes remained the major contributor to both revenues (47 per cent) and profit (76 per cent) before tax.
Cigarettes, incidentally, witnessed a low growth of around 0.63 per cent in revenue to ₹4,142 crore for the October-December period (₹4,116 crore a year-ago).
Profit grew by approximately 9 per cent to ₹2,886 crore.
FMCG fares well According to a company statement, the muted growth was due to a “steep increase” in excise duty and value-added tax in several States such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam. In FMCG ‘others category’ — snacks, staples, spices, ready to eat categories; apparels and personal-care; safety matches and agarbattis — both revenue and profit moved up. While revenue for the October-December period increased 11.4 per cent to ₹2,314 crore, profit rose 10.5 per cent to over ₹11 crore.
Paper and Paper-boards “In the paperboards, paper and packaging segment, revenue and profit (were) impacted by the slowdown in the FMCG and cigarettes industry,” the company said.
Segment revenues dropped 4.6 per cent to ₹1,199 crore for the third quarter of this fiscal.
It stood at ₹1,257 crore in the year-ago period. Profit also dropped 7.7 per cent to approximately ₹214 crore on a year-on-year basis.
Hospitality dull Despite reporting a 4.7 per cent increase in revenue at ₹330 crore (over Q3 or 2013-14), there was a decline in profits for the hotels business.
Profit fell 53 per cent to ₹29 crore.
The drop, ITC said, was due to an additional depreciation charge on revision in useful life of fixed assets and gestation costs of “My Fortune”, Bengaluru, and “ITC Grand Bharat” at the Classic Golf Resort near Gurgaon. “The hotels industry continued to be impacted by a weak pricing scenario in the backdrop of excessive room inventory in key domestic markets,” ITC said.
Agri-business The agri-business reported a 16.3 per cent increase in profit to approximately ₹239 crore (₹205 crore) mainly on the back of improved leaf tobacco realisations.
However, segment revenues declined by over 10 per cent to nearly ₹1,598 crore in the third quarter of the fiscal (from approximately ₹1,786 crore in the year-ago period).
Lack of trading opportunities in soya, following higher crop output in the US, Brazil and Argentina, led to the fall.
On Wednesday, the shares of ITC closed at ₹352.60, down by 5.01 per cent on the BSE.