IRCTC on May 29 reported 30.4 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise in standalone net profit at Rs 279 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. The tourism and ticketing arm of the Indian Railways had posted a net profit of Rs 214 crore in the year-ago period.
The company's revenue from operations increased 39.6 percent to Rs 965 crore for the quarter under review, as against Rs 691 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization or EBITDA was up 16.5 percent at Rs 324.6 crore in march quarter this fiscal as against Rs 278.5 crore in last fiscal, while the margin stood at 33.6 percent versus 40.3 percent (YoY).
Moreover, the revenue from catering segment rose 49 percent year-on-year to Rs 396 crore versus Rs 266 crore in the March quarter, last year.
Revenues from the Rail Neer segment jumped 33 percent to Rs 73 crore as against Rs 55 crore in the last-year period, while internet ticketing business rose to Rs 295 crore from Rs 293 crore in the last fiscal.
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IRCTC's board has also recommended a final dividend of Rs 2 per equity share of face value of Rs 2 each for the financial year 2022-23.
Meanwhile, shares of IRCTC on May 29 closed 3.40 percent higher at Rs 645.60 apiece on BSE ahead of the earnings announcement.
Moneycontrol's Pro Research team noted that IRCTC’s earnings in the first year, post-pandemic, show strong revival in most of the businesses – reflected in the 40 percent topline growth in the final quarter and 88 percent for the year.
While internet ticketing held the fort during the pandemic, the revival in FY23 has been spearheaded by catering and tourism. The abolition of the 2S category had an impact on the ticketing business, especially in the second half.
"The relatively lower share of internet ticketing business with extremely high margin, supressed the overall margin for the company. Q4 saw a sequential decline of 190 basis points in operating margin and for the year margin fell by more than 10 percent. Going forward, we expect the non-ticketing businesses to be the key growth drivers for IRCTC," it stated.
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