BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s United Spirits reported a rise in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by strong demand for its premium alcohol brands and resumption of sales in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh in September after a five-year gap.
The Indian arm of spirits maker Diageo reported a standalone profit of 4.51 billion rupees ($52.72 million) for the quarter ended March 31, up 17% from a year ago.
The company said the net sales value of premium category, which includes Johnnie Walker whiskey and Tanqueray gin, rose 13.2% year-on-year, while overall net sales growth was 10.5%.
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KEY CONTEXT
Analysts said that following a strong October to December period, demand for alcoholic beverages remained strong during the fourth quarter, led by the wedding season.
United Spirits has focused on more premium products in its portfolio in the past few quarters, which has shielded the company to an extent from India’s inflation-led consumption slowdown.
Earlier this month, India’s largest beer maker United Breweries reported a rise in fourth quarter profit helped by lower costs, while its volume rose 5% driven by strong growth in the premium segment.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
months) months)
RIC PE EV/EBI Price/Sa Revenue profit growth Mean # of Stock to price Div
TDA les growth rating* analysts target** yield
(%)
UNSP.NS 61.71 42.84 NULL 12.34 19.61 BUY 12 0.99 0.42
UBBW.NS 64.40 42.78 NULL 13.65 52.55 HOLD 12 1.00 0.49
RADC.NS 68.58 41.26 NULL 10.29 40.06 BUY 6 0.96 0.16
TILK.NS 37.47 23.82 NULL 14.93 -16.55 STRONG 1 0.80 0.14
BUY
* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
** The ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT
JANUARY TO MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE
–All data from LSEG
–$1 = 85.5490 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Nishit Navin; Editing by Leroy Leo)
