Rallis India Ltd. has reported a 43 per cent decline in December quarter net profits at ₹22.55 crore on muted revenue growth and higher expenses. Rallis had reported a net profit of ₹39.55 crore in the same period last year. Total income for the December quarter was marginally up at ₹630 crore over the same period last year’s ₹628 crore.

“Our Q3 revenues witnessed 0.3% growth over last year. This has been against the backdrop of erratic rainfall in the domestic market and headwinds in international business. During the quarter, our domestic crop protection business grew by 7.7%, Crop Nutrition business by 22%.

“Exports declined by 6.5%, primarily due to inventory build-up at the customer end. Our seed business revenue was down at ₹24 crore over the same period last year’s ₹28 crore. For the ongoing Rabi, we remain positive due to increasing crop acreages and robust commodity prices,” said Sanjiv Lal, MD and CEO, Rallis India.

Long-term focus

Further, Lal said, “Our long-term focus continues to be investing in growth through new product introduction, expanding our retail footprint, and investing in flexible multipurpose manufacturing plants for our new product pipeline. We are also consistently prioritizing Technology & Digital Transformation projects in our Operations viz. Manufacturing, Customer engagement, and Supply chain”

For the first three quarters of the current financial year, Rallis India reported a lower net profit of ₹161 crore over the same period last year’s ₹178 crore. Revenues for the first three quarters stood at ₹2,444 crore, up 17 per cent over ₹2,096 crore reported in the same period last year.

During the December quarter, Rallis India launched 9(3) Pre-emergent herbicide - Daksh Plus (Pendimethalin + Metribuzin) for wheat crop. The company also signed an MoU with Garuda Aerospace to provide end-to-end operation of drone-based services to farmers.

Rallis India scrip ended 2.66 per cent lower at ₹245.50 on BSE on Wednesday.