ITC Q4 profit up 11.60% at Rs 4,259.68 crore

ITC Ltd on Wednesday reported an 11.60% rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 4,259.68 crore for the fourth quarter ended in March 2022 (Q4FY22).

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 3,816.84 crore during the January-March quarter of the previous fiscal, ITC said in a regulatory filing. Analysts at Edelweiss had expected the profit after tax to come in at Rs 4,197 crore for Q4FY22.

Its revenue from operations was up 15.25% to Rs 17,754.02 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 15,404.37 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Akshay D’Souza, Chief of Growth & Insights at Bizom believes that maker of Aashirvaad Atta and salt continues to fire growth in the FMCG sector driven by “levers of expanded direct distribution reach and a flurry of new product launches (110 in FY22) despite strong downtrading seen in discretionary and a hygiene portfolio highly dependent on Covid cases”.

ITC total expenses were at Rs 12,632.29 crore, up 15.41% in Q4/FY 2021-22, as against Rs 10,944.64 crore in the year-ago period. India’s largest cigarette-maker said its revenue from the segment rose 10% to Rs 7,177 crore during the fourth quarter. The company has had partially raised prices on its dairy products to put a lid on diminishing margins.

D’Souza says that ITC is also trying to build a B2B channel in “Unnati” that has now reached a reasonable scale of 3 lakh outlets. “This is a positive sign for being future ready as the industry is seeing direct retailer ordering channels becoming even more prevalent across many large companies thus supplementing the field sales capabilities”.

The company had rolled out its B2B app ‘Unnati’ earlier this year, to further bolster its retailer engagement capabilities.

(With PTI inputs)