Even as the third-quarter topline growth has raised concerns among analysts, with the same sailing at a single-digit level of about 7 per cent, most analysts are confident that the FMCG major would post a "much better" growth in the fourth quarter to take the annual topline growth at over 10 per cent.

Says Dalal & Broacha head of research Milind Karmarkar: "I think the reason behind a single-digit growth registered by HLL in the third quarter is the delay in the festive season which has led to a fall in the consumer demand. I expect this to pick up in the last quarter with a topline growth of about 13 per cent."

Kotak Securities analyst Rajat Sabharwal, however, is revising downwards the annual topline growth from 11 per cent to 8 per cent, after taking into consideration the third quarter performance which, he says, was below his expectation.

The third quarter results are more or less in line with analysts' expectations. Says Karmarkar: "We had projected a lower bottomline growth, in the region of 23-24 per cent. The actual result has been higher than expected."

The topline growth is disappointing but not alarming, said another analyst. He said the trend in the last few quarters demonstrates a single-digit sales growth which goes on to prove that a company having a large portfolio of products will be under pressure to achieve double-digit growths.

Some analysts have also exhibited concern on royalty payment to affect the company's operating profit in the coming years. According to Birla Sun Life head of research K Ramachandran, "HLL will have to aim for a strong double-digit topline growth in the range of 10-15 per cent on an annual basis in order to cancel the impact of the royalty."

The company had earlier said that the outgo on royalty to the parent would be in the range of Rs 60-65 crore annually.

"HLL will have to gear up on increasing the topline growth. Anything below a 10 per cent level of growth will lead to flat results," says Ramachandran.