ITC on Friday reported a 12.13 per cent increase in standalone net profit to Rs2,669.47 crore for the fourth quarter of 2016-17, driven by revenue growth in agri commodities, branded packaged foods and personal care products businesses.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs2,380.68 crore for the January-March quarter of last fiscal, ITC said in a BSE filing.
ITC’s net sales during the period under review was up 6.15 per cent to Rs15,008.82 crore, as against Rs14,138.78 crore for the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
The company said that it made “modest recovery in growth amidst overhang of liquidity squeeze and persistent weakness in the wholesale channel and rural markets.”
The Kolkata-headquartered company’s total expenses rose 5.29 per cent to Rs11,363.78 crore as against Rs10,792.48 crore in the fourth quarter of 2015-16.
“Overall revenue growth driven by agri commodities, branded packaged foods businesses, personal care products business offset by ongoing pipeline calibration in the education and stationery product business and lower consumer offtake and heavy discounting in apparel,” it said.
Revenue from the total FMCG business including cigarettes increased 5.19 per cent to Rs11,840.70 crore from Rs11,256.24 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
During the quarter, revenue from cigarettes increased 4.79 per cent to Rs8,954.94 crore from Rs8,545.46 crore in the year-ago period.
Revenue from FMCG-Others segment was up 6.45 per cent to Rs2,885.76 crore during the January-March quarter as against Rs2,710.78 crore in the year-ago period.
“Sharp hike in input prices, gestation costs of new categories (juices, dairy, chocolates, coffee) and heavy discounting in apparel impacted FMCG-Others segment results,” the company said.