Raymond to streamline realty biz; expects better topline in Q4

Sanjay Bahl, Group Chief Financial Officer, Raymond is upbeat of topline in the fourth quarter to be better than the third quarter which was impacted due to demonetisation. He expects liquidity to ease in the fourth quarter and benefit the tier 2 and tier 3 markets.

The segment that was hit the most was branded textile segment, said Bahl adding that he is hopeful of the upcoming wedding season boost sales.Revenues for the quarter were down 5.6 percent at Rs 1.306 crore versus rs 1384 crore for the same quarter earlier fiscal. EBITDA too was down 49.7 percent at Rs 58.5 crore versus Rs 116.2 crore year on year. Margins stood at 4.5 percent versus 8.4 percent YoY. However, net loss reduced to Rs 14.69 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016.However, branded apparel grew 6 percent in the third quarter although it was lower than the 18 percent growth in the last many quarters. Overall, the wholesale and MBO in branded textile contribute 45 percent to the total turnover, he said.

There has been 16-18 percent growth across all power brands in Q3, said Bahl.

With regards to auto business, he said they have achieved a turnaround but tools and hardware business are seeing challenges. So the focus now is on rationalising costs to get to a healthy profitability over there too.Demonetisation impacted real estate business really hard and so the company has a team in place to drive initiatives in this business in terms of evaluating all options to unlock value in the best possible way, said Bahl.