ITC reports 30% rise in Q1 net profit at Rs 3,343 crore

Cigarette-to-hotel conglomerate ITC Ltd on Saturday reported 30 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,343 crore for the first quarter of current financial year (Q1FY22). The same was Rs 2,567 crore in the June quarter of last year.

Its revenue from operations rose 36 per cent per cent to Rs 14,240 crore as against Rs 10,478 crore in the year-ago period.

However, on a sequential basis, the profit after tax (PAT) fell 12 per cent. It was Rs 3,816 crore during the March quarter (Q4FY21).

"Localised lockdowns and mobility restrictions imposed by States in a bid to contain the sharp increase in daily Covid‐19 infections in the second wave rendered the operating environment during the quarter extremely challenging and impacted the strong recovery momentum witnessed in recent quarters," ITC said in an exchange filing.

"However, the situation continues to improve with the progressive easing of restrictions and increased mobility from mid‐June," the FMCG major added

Segment wise, the revenue from the FMCG-cigarette business came in at Rs 5,802 crore, up 34 per cent from Rs 4,330 crore reported in the last year period. The profit before tax (PBT) of cigarette business too rose 36.5 per cent at Rs 3,461 crore in the first quarter.

On the cigarette business, it said the strong volume recovery momentum witnessed in the second half of FY21 was impacted by localised lockdowns and restricted hours of convenience store operations in the wake of second wave of the pandemic. 

However, ITC said there has been week‐on‐week improvement in market conditions from mid‐June with most markets returning to normalcy.

The non-cigarette FMCG business or FMCG-other segment clocked a revenue of Rs 3,731 crore, up 10 per cent year-on-year, while the PBT of the same came in at Rs 174 crore.

The revenue from hotels segment more than tripled to Rs 134 crore as compared to a meagre Rs 25 crore in year-ago period. The agri business revenue rose 9 per cent, while that from the Paperboards, Paper & Packaging surged 54 per cent.

On Friday, ITC's scrip traded 3 per cent higher, its sharpest intra-day gain in two months ahead of the results, before eventually closing 2.63 per cent higher at Rs 212.45 on NSE.