Titan Company, wherein ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala cut some stake in the March quarter, reported, as expected, healthy 48.2 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in standalone profit for the Q4FY21, driven by jewellery business.
Profit during the quarter increased to Rs 529 crore, up 48 percent against Rs 357 crore logged in the year-ago quarter. The sequential growth in bottomline was 26.3 percent.
The standalone revenue from operations grew by 61.1 percent YoY to Rs 7,135 crore during the quarter ended March 2021, but it was down 2.1 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ).
"Titan Company continued to do well in Q4FY21 with strong revenue growth both in the jewellery and the eyewear divisions and with the watches division recovering fully," it said in its BSE filing.
Numbers were largely in line with analysts' estimates. Profit was expected at Rs 525 crore on revenue of Rs 7,000 crore for the March quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.
The company reported a 31.6 per cent YoY growth in standalone EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) at Rs 795 crore in Q4FY21, but margin fell 250 bps YoY to 11.1 percent in the same quarter. The CNBC-TV18 poll estimates for EBITDA stood at Rs 800 crore and margin at 11.4 percent for the quarter.
Jewellery segment registered a 71.1 percent YoY growth in revenue at Rs 6,422 crore with earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rising 31.6 percent YoY to Rs 703 crore in Q4FY21.
"During the quarter and year ended March 2021, the company sold gold-ingots aggregating Rs 25 crore and Rs 1,357 crore, respectively to various customers dealing in bullion, which is disclosed as other operating revenues," Titan said in its BSE filing.
The company further said the jewellery division ran a diamond studded promotion in the quarter and that led to good recovery of the studded segment of the business. "However the studded ratio continued to lag the previous year and with gold coins sales continuing to remain very high, margins in the jewellery business continued to be under pressure," it added.
Standalone profit in the pandemic year, FY21, fell 42.2 percent to Rs 877 crore and revenue grew by 3 percent to Rs 20,602 crore compared to previous year.
"The financial year has indeed been a most testing one for the company with the pandemic hitting its operations very significantly, particularly in the first half of the financial year. But the bounce back of the company on the revenue front so quickly, led entirely by the complete support of customers," said C K Venkataraman, Managing Director.
Eyewear segment revenue in Q4 grew by 17.6 percent to Rs 127 crore with its EBIT rising 1050 percent to Rs 23 crore compared to the year-ago period, while watchers and wearables recorded a 0.4 percent YoY decline in business at Rs 555 crore and 36.1 percent fall in its EBIT at Rs 46 crore for Q4FY21.
"The watches and wearables business recovered well in the quarter. The eyewear business also improved with revenues growing by 18 percent," said the company, adding the recovery in the other segments of the company comprising Indian dress wear and accessories was still slow.
The company said CaratLane continued to do very well in both the online and offline channels and ended the quarter with a growth of 60 percent and profit before tax of Rs 10 crore.
Rakesh Radheshyam Jhunjhunwala reduced his stake in Titan Company to 3.97 percent (3,52,60,395 equity shares) as of March 2021, from 4.23 percent (3,75,10,395) at the end of December 2020. His wife Rekha Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, too, sold 20,000 equity shares during the March quarter, reducing the shareholding to 96,40,575 equity shares from 96,60,575 shares in the same period, but in percentage terms it remained at 1.09 percent QoQ.
