Steady progress in the tea and coffee business coupled with foreign exchange gains has helped Tata Global Beverages (TGBL) post a 77 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 96 crore in the fourth quarter of the financial year 2013. The company’s net profit in the year ago period stood at Rs 54.21 crore.
The maker of Tetley and Tata Tea’s total income stood at Rs 1,849.5 crore in the January-March quarter as compared to Rs 1,738.62 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.
Harish Bhat, Managing Director, TGBL said: “Strong product innovation in all our three categories, tea, coffee and water and new blends has helped achieve robust growth during the quarter. However, the 77 per cent increase is not sustainable, as there were some exceptional gains in this quarter.”
For the fiscal 2012-13, the company's consolidated net profit stood at Rs 372.75 crore as against Rs 356.14 crore in the previous fiscal. Net income stood at Rs 7,350.98 crore as against Rs 6,640.04 crore in the previous fiscal.
The company said its board of directors has recommended a dividend of Rs 2.15 per equity share of Re 1 each, fully paid, for the financial year 2012-13.
Meanwhile, V. Srinivasan, research analyst at Angel Broking said that, during the quarter, profitability has been impacted by a Rs 38-crore loss from associate companies, against a loss of Rs 20 crore in the corresponding previous period.
The company has termed the losses as “investments in the water business, which are still in the incubation stage and have not yielded any revenues”.
The stock rose 0.77 per cent to Rs.144.65 on the BSE, while the benchmark Sensex rose 0.65 per cent to 20,160.82 points.