ITC Ltd on Thursday posted a profit rise of 23.4 per cent on-year for the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 2023 to Rs 5,175.48 crore, as against Rs 4,195.69 crore during the same quarter last year, beating estimates. The company posted a profit surge on the back of solid demand for tobacco products as well as other consumer goods. It recorded revenue from operations at Rs 19,058.29 crore in the fourth quarter of FY23, up 7.3 per cent from Rs 17,754.02 crore in Q4FY22. The Board also recommended a final dividend of Rs 6.75 and a special dividend of Rs 2.75 per equity share of face value of Re 1 each for the financial year ended March 2023. The dividend will be paid between 14th August, 2023 and 17th August, 2023, it said in a regulatory filing. Together with the interim dividend of Rs 6 per share, the total dividend for the financial year 2022-2023 would be Rs 15.50.
The cigarettes-to-hotels conglomerate also announced the appointment of Alka Marezban Bharucha as a director and also as an independent director of the company for a period of five years, and appointment of Hemant Malik as a director and a wholetime director of the company for a period of three years with effect from 12th August, 2023.
ITC’s segment wise performance
ITC’s food business clocked revenue of Rs 13,033.43 crore wherein cigarettes revenue was at Rs 8082.26 crore. Q4 segment revenue was up 19.4 per cent on-year at approximately 1.6x of Q4FY20, with growth driven by products like staples, biscuits, snacks, noodles, dairy, beverages, soaps, fragrances, agarbatti. Further, education & stationery products business continued to witness strong traction, ITC said. “Q4 segment EBITDA up 76 per cent YoY; margin expansion driven by multi-pronged interventions viz. premiumisation, supply chain agility, judicious pricing actions, digital initiatives, strategic cost management and fiscal incentives (including PLI),” ITC said in the regulatory filing.
Its hotels business reported revenue of Rs 808.72 crore in the fiscal fourth quarter, which was 2x of Q4FY22 and approximately 1.7x of Q4FY20. “RevPAR well ahead of pre-pandemic levels,” it said.
ITC’s agri business revenue stood at Rs 3607.30 crore in Q4FY23, up 20 per cent on-year. “Q4 segment PBIT up 25.9 per cent YoY driven by growth in value-added agri products and leaf tobacco exports,” it said.
The conglomerate’s paperboards, paper and packaging segment posted revenue at Rs 2221.01 crore from Rs 2182.77 crore in the corresponding quarter last year due to the impact of planned shut down of pulp mills for capacity expansion. “Softening of pulp prices, muted demand mainly in global markets and relatively higher base impacted YoY segment revenue growth,” ITC said.
ITC’s new launches and expansions
In terms of product launches, ITC launched 90 new products anchored on the vectors of health & nutrition, hygiene, protection & care, convenience & on-the-go, indulgence, etc., were launched across target markets during the year. Further, in line with the company’s multi-channel go-to-market strategy, market coverage was stepped up to appximately 2.1x of pre-pandemic levels. “In rural markets, direct reach enhancement was supported through a hub and spoke distribution model with the continued expansion of rural stockists network to 1.2x over previous year and collaborations with rural-focused eB2B players,” ITC said.
ITC’s sales through e-commerce channel stood at 4.7x over FY 2019-20 levels. ‘ITC e-Store’, the company’s exclusive Direct to Consumer (D2C) platform, is now operational in 10,000+ pin-codes.