ITC quarterly net rises 5.67% to `2,495 crore

Diversified group ITC Ltd on Friday reported a 5.67 per cent increase in standalone net profit at Rs 2,495.20 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, amid sluggish demand environment. The Kolkata-based company, which has announced plans to issue one bonus share for every two existing ordinary shares, had posted a net profit of Rs 2,361.18 crore during the corresponding January-March quarter a year ago.

Net sales were up 9.51 per cent at Rs 10,062.38 crore for the quarter under review as against Rs 9,188.25 crore in the previous fiscal, ITC said in a BSE filing. There was "improvement in performance during the quarter driven by improved realisations, margin expansion, benign input costs and favourable base effect" the company said. It, however, said revenue growth of non-cigarette FMCG segment was impacted due to persistently sluggish demand environment, price deflationary scenario and trade pipeline synchronisation in the notebooks category.

Growth in segment results is driven by higher scale and gross margin expansion, it said. Revenue from the total FMCG business including cigarettes increased 8.35 per cent to Rs 7,343.29 crore from Rs 6,777.21 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2014-15. During the quarter, revenue from cigarettes increased 10.17 per cent to Rs 4,639.17 crore from Rs 4,210.70 crore in the year-ago period although it continued to be impacted by illegal trade.