Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) swung back to profit in the quarter ended March, but missed Street expectations.The company on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 412 crore in the fourth quarter of FY25 compared to a loss of `1,893 crore in the year-ago period.
Bloomberg estimates had pegged the profit at `491 crore. Consolidated revenue was up 6.2% to Rs 3,598 crore versus Rs 3,385 crore last year. Bloomberg analysts had estimated a revenue of Rs 3,617 crore. Ebitda was up 0.4% to Rs 759 crore versus Rs 756 crore last year. This was higher than Street estimates of Rs 739 crore. Margins, however, narrowed to 21.1% versus 22.3% last year. The margins also came in below the Street estimates.GCPL managing director and CEO Sudhir Sitapati said the company delivered a sequentially improving performance in Q4FY25 despite market conditions remaining the same.
“Our consolidated organic volumes for Q4FY25 grew by 6%, led by the India business growing volumes at 4% and Indonesia growing volumes at 5%,” he added.
Revenue from the India market, where Godrej Consumer operates brands such as Good Knight, Cinthol and HIT, was Rs 2,184.92 crore.
On a standalone business, which mainly consists of domestic business, the firm’s “underlying volume grew by 4%, sales grew by 8% year-on-year in Q4”.According to Sitapati, demand conditions in India have continued to be impacted by headwinds in urban consumption. A surge in palm oil prices by more than 50% is negatively impacting Ebitda margins.
But buoyed by a good season, GCPL’s household insecticides business grew volumes in strong double digits. “The volume growth on the non-soaps’ portfolio was high single-digit, with soaps volume growth impacted by volume-price rebalancing,” Sitapati said. Revenue from GCPL’s second-biggest market Indonesia was at `504.29 crore, up 1.2% in the March quarter. According to GCPL, Indonesia’s underlying volume grew by 5%, though sales grew by 1% in rupee terms and 1% in constant currency terms year-on-year.
Shares of GCPL closed 0.90% lower at Rs 1,250.90 on the BSE on Tuesday. The stock has risen 0.05% in the last 12 months and 15.6% on a year-to-date basis. Out of the 36 analysts tracking the company, 27 have a ‘buy’ rating on the stock, six suggest ‘hold’ and three recommend ‘sell’, according to Bloomberg data. The average of 12-month analysts’ price target implies a potential upside of 5.1%.