India’s National Fertilizers posts quarterly profit drop on weak demand

(Reuters) – India’s National Fertilizers posted a lower third-quarter profit on Monday, dragged by weak demand for its fertilizers.

The state-run agricultural chemicals maker posted a 69.6% fall in its consolidated profit to 458.1 million rupees ($5.2 million) for the quarter ended December 31, compared to 1.51 billion rupees a year ago.

Revenue fell 22.8% to 58.56 billion rupees.

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KEY CONTEXT

Analysts believe India’s agrochemical sector is set to recover in 2025 after a period of destocking, though some firms still face challenges.

Demand growth in the quarter stayed weak due to low pest infestations, favorable weather, and delayed seasonal trends, impacting sales.

The company posted a 14.5% fall in its revenue from its mainstay fertilizers business.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment

months) months)

RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit Mean No. of Stock to Div

growth (%) growth rating* analyst price yield

(%) s target** (%)

National NULL NULL NULL NULL Null 0 NULL 0.26

Fertilizers

Chambal Fertilisers 12.33 6.92 4.83 14.27 Buy 2 1.00 1.44

and Chemicals

Deepak Fertilisers 14.48 8.09 11.30 23.63 Buy 1 0.82 0.72

and Petrochemicals

Corp

Coromandel 25.87 16.93 5.08 15.16 Buy 9 0.90 0.40

International

* Mean of analysts’ ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** Ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

OCTOBER-DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

— All data from LSEG

=– $1 = 87.4200 rupees

(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)