Best Agrolife Q4 loss at Rs 8.4 cr; FY'23 profit rises 83% to Rs 192 cr

The Board has recommended a dividend of 30 per cent (i.e. Rs 3 per share), which is 50 per cent jump over last year.

Agro-chemical firm Best Agrolife Ltd has reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 8.40 crore for the January-March quarter on a lower income. Its net profit stood at Rs 38.16 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income fell to Rs 254.58 crore in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal from Rs 310.35 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, according to a regulatory filing. During the entire last fiscal, the net profit increased sharply to Rs 192.14 crore from Rs 104.76 crore in the previous year.

Total income rose to Rs 1,748.27 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal from Rs 1,212.57 crore in the previous financial year. Vimal Alawadhi, Managing Director, Best Agrolife, said: We have delivered strong revenue from operations of Rs 1,746 crore which is a robust growth of 44% over FY22."

"Our constant focus on introducing innovative products to cater to farmers' needs has resulted in company introducing many specialised combination products including patented novel combination Ronfen in FY23 which drove the growth during the year. We have also expanded our margins by 427 bps during the year which was driven by change in product mix," he added. The Board has recommended a dividend of 30 per cent (i.e. Rs 3 per share), which is 50 per cent jump over last year.

"Q4, FY'23 was difficult for the industry at large due to higher channel inventory and excess supply from China at lower prices," Alawadhi said. "We were also affected by this as our branded product portfolio is more focused on the kharif season. We are working towards introducing more branded products which are focused on Rabi season which will improve breath of the portfolio and will also make the portfolio more balanced which is currently skewed more towards kharif season," he added.

Currently, the company has 7,000 tonnes per annum and 30,000 tonnes per annum technical and formulation manufacturing capacity respectively through three of its manufacturing plants in Gajaraula, Greater Noida, and Jammu & Kashmir.