India's ITC beats Q4 profit estimates on steady demand
BENGALURU/CHENNAI (Reuters) - Indian's ITC Ltd on Thursday reported a bigger-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter profit, boosted by solid demand for cigarettes and other consumer goods.
The cigarettes-to-hotels conglomerate's profit rose 21.4% to 50.87 billion rupees ($622 million) in the quarter ended March 31, it said in an exchange filing.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 49.84 billion rupees, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
ITC's revenue from operations rose about 6.6% to 175.06 billion rupees, boosted by a 14% jump in its cigarettes business, which houses the Classic and Gold Flake brands.
During the quarter, ITC's cigarette sales climbed as the broader tobacco industry stayed away from price increases due to a lower-than-expected tax increase on cigarettes in the Union budget.
Sales of its consumer goods barring cigarettes have also improved as consumers in rural India are buying more amid easing inflation. ITC's other consumer goods unit, which includes its foods and stationery businesses, rose 19.4%.
Revenue from the hotels business, meanwhile, nearly doubled as leisure and business travel picked up during the quarter.
The company also recommended a special per-share dividend 2.75 rupees in addition to the final dividend of 6.75 per share.
Shares of ITC slipped 1.6% after results. They had climbed nearly 16% in the March quarter.
ITC's results mirror growth in peers cooking oil maker Marico Ltd and Pepsi bottler Varun Beverages Ltd, even as Dabur India Ltd and Dove soapmaker Hindustan Unilever Ltd reported shrinking margins due to high costs.
($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto in Bengaluru and Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Varun H K)
