Gulf Oil Lubricants Q1 profit after tax rises 77% to Rs 30.35 crore

Lubes maker Gulf Oil Lubricants on Thursday reported a 77 per cent growth in profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 30.35 crore for the quarter ended June.

The Hinduja Group company had posted a PAT of Rs 17.7 crore in Q1 FY21, according to a statement.

Net revenue grew 73 per cent to Rs 417.37 crore as compared to Rs 241 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

The board of directors in its meeting held on Thursday also approved amendment of the 'Objects Clause' of the Memorandum of Association of the company to enable it to explore and pursue business opportunities in multiple areas of e-mobility and electric vehicle value chain, including batteries, EV chargers and electric vehicles.

 

This, however, is subjected to approval of shareholders at the company's ensuing 13th annual general meeting, it said.

While the quarter has been impacted by the second wave of COVID-19 and closure of retail markets in various states, especially in April and May, the impact has been less than the first quarter of last year when there was a nationwide lockdown, the company said.

"With the rapid spread of second wave of Covid-19 hitting the country very hard during April and May, market conditions specially in retail deteriorated sharply but this time around, the B2B segment has been less impacted as most industries continued to function in the state level lockdowns announced from time to time in phased manner.

"This enabled the Company to garner volumes more from its B2B segments to deliver good YoY growth," said Ravi Chawla, managing director and CEO, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd.

With the second wave subsiding from June onwards, markets started opening up, which led to demand conditions across the segments significantly improving, he said, adding "we are seeing robust volumes now."

The company is focusing on continuing its market leading growth journey and is geared up to face the challenges of unprecedented rise in input costs with a series of price interventions already taken to move towards restoring margins in coming quarters, he noted.

The second wave penetrated and affected rural India in a bigger way than that in the first wave, which resulted in some initial slowdown in business from rural areas and agri segment.

The company still grew in double digits in the automotive lubricants space -- especially showing high growth in personal mobility as well as CVO segment, it said.

"We have launched several initiatives to improve our preparedness for the future with employee vaccination campaigns.

"The company is confident that business and financial deliveries should bounce back quickly like last year as market conditions look to improve with the rider of further Covid waves not destabilising this improving demand trend," Chawla said.