ITC Q1FY23 Result reports a robust growth across segments

ITC Ltd is a leading private sector company in India. ITC’s product portfolio includes Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards & Specialty Papers, Packaging, Agri-Business, Packaged Foods & Confectionery, Information Technology, Branded Apparel, Personal Care Stationery, Safety Matches, and other FMCG items. While ITC is a market leader in its old industries of cigarettes, hotels, paperboards, packaging, and agricultural exports, it is rapidly increasing market share in its newer sectors of packaged foods and confectionery, branded apparel, personal care, and stationery.

ITC Infotech India Ltd, ITC’s wholly owned Information Technology subsidiary, delivers IT services and solutions to premier global customers. ITC Ltd, announced its results for the Q1FY23 on August 01, 2022, in which Profit after tax (PAT) increased by 33.98% year on year to Rs. 4389.76 crores, compared to Rs. 3276.48 crores in Q1 FY22.

Let’s now dig deeper into the fundamentals of ITC Ltd and analyse their Q1FY23 performance.

Key Highlights of ITC Earnings Release of Q1FY23

• Revenue from operations was 19831.27 crores, up 39.26% year on year.
• Profit after tax (PAT) was Rs. 4,389.76 crore in this quarter, up 33.98% YoY from Rs. 3,276.48 crores in Q1 FY22 and 63 % QoQ from Rs. 4,195.69 in Q4 FY22.
• Earnings per share for the company were recorded at Rs. 3.56 in Q1 FY23, representing a 83% increase year on year.
• In Q1 FY23, the company’s total income increased by 37.02% year on year, reaching 20152.00 crores.
• Operating profit increased 41.5% year on year to Rs 5,646.10 crore, beating market
• Paper margins have increased by 220 basis points, and hotels have reported their greatest one-quarter profit in more than a decade, of Rs 1.1 billion in 1Q23, compared to a loss of 5 billion in 1Q22.

Segment Wise Performance

Cigarette volumes up 26% YoY in 1QFY23

Net cigarette income increased 27.4% year on year to INR55.8 billion, with volume likely increasing 26% year on year on a base of 31% growth. In 1QFY23, volumes exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

ITC was able to sustain its market share by improving its product portfolio through innovation, premiumization across categories, and product availability.

‘Classic Connect,’ ‘Gold Flake indie Mint,’ ‘Gold Flake Neo SMART Filter,’ ‘Capstan Excel,’ ‘American Club Smash,’ ‘Gold Flake Kings Mixpod,’ ‘Wave Boss,’ ‘Flake Nova,’ and ‘Flake Excel Taste Pro’ were all recently released. ITC continues to collaborate with policymakers to develop a regulatory and taxing framework in India.

FMCG – Others: Discretionary/Out-of-Home sectors expand rapidly

Segmental sales increased 19.5% year on year to INR44.5 billion, while segmental EBIT increased 17.6% year on year to INR2 billion in 1QFY23. The EBIT margin shrank by 10 basis points year on year to 4.6%.

Snacks, Beverages, Confectionery, Frozen Snacks, Fragrances, and Agarbattis were among the fastest growing discretionary/out-of-home categories. Sunfeast Biscuits, Sunrise Spices, Aashirvaad Salt, and Aashirvaad Svasti Dairy goods drove substantial growth in Staples & Convenience Foods.

ITC’s Hygiene portfolio sales were down, although they remained above pre-pandemic levels. Education & Stationery Products Business bounced back with the re-opening of educational institutions.

E-commerce sales increased to 4.2x 1QFY20 levels, increasing channel salience to 7%. UNNATI, the company’s eB2B platform, has expanded to cover 320k shops.

Paper and Paperboard sales grew 43.3% YoY

Paper and paperboard sales increased 43.3% year on year to INR22.7 billion, and segment EBIT increased 56% year on year to INR6.1 billion. The EBIT margin increased by 220 basis points year on year to 27%. Revenue growth in the segment was supported by ongoing robust demand across end-user groups and exports.

The Value Added Paperboard segment expanded rapidly, driven by increased realisation, strategic capacity growth, and good export performance.

Agri-Business revenues grew by 82.7% YoY

Revenue increased 82.7% year on year to INR74.7 billion, driven by high revenue growth in wheat, rice, and leaf tobacco exports. The division recorded EBIT growth of 45.1% year on year to INR2.8 billion, with EBIT margin maintaining flat at 3.8%.

The Agri company used the e-Choupal network to help the branded Packaged Foods businesses with strategic procurement. ITCMAARS (Metamarket for Advanced Agriculture and Rural Services) – a crop agnostic ‘phygital’ full stack AgriTech platform with 200+ FPOs and 75,000+ farmers – was launched.

The platform offers farmers personalised and hyperlocal crop advisory powered by AI/ML, access to high-quality inputs and market connections, as well as allied services such as pre-approved loans. At the same time, it provides modern technologies such as real-time soil testing, quality assaying, and precision farming.

Hotels Revenues up 336.2% YoY

Revenue increased 336.2 % year on year to INR5.5 billion. In 1QFY23, segmental EBIT was INR1.1 billion, compared to a loss of INR1.5 billion in 1QFY22.

Retail (packages), Leisure, Weddings, and MICE categories drove Average Room Rate (ARR) and occupancy rates higher than pre-pandemic levels in the Hotels industry.

ITC has a solid pipeline of management contracts under its brands Welcomhotel, Fortune, Mementos, and Storii, in accordance with its ‘asset-right’ strategy. These brands’ properties are planned to be released in stages.

ITC Infotech

In 1QFY23, ITC results showed that Infotech’s revenue increased 7.9% year on year to INR7.5 billion, but EBITDA decreased 39.3% year on year to INR1.2 billion.

In 1QFY23, the EBITDA margin shrank by 1,230 basis points year on year to 15.8%. Investments in capability development and infrastructure in strategic emphasis areas continue.

Technical Analysis

As it approached 52 Week High Level, ITC’s Share price has seen some correction in a day. It broke the resistance of 52-week high price with decent volumes and increased in past few trading sessions. It has been trading above MA 50, which makes it in a bullish trend. RSI is around 70, which makes it little overbought stock and hence could see some corrections in some upcoming days. Additionally, after the Q1FY23 data is released, investors may want to think about buying ITC Ltd with a medium- to long-term outlook due to its robust business growth and sound fundamentals. The stock is continuing an uptrend.

Prabhudas Lilladhar raised their FY23 EPS forecast by 5.3% and their target price to Rs327 (from Rs305 previously), despite downgrading their rating from Buy to Accumulate following a 50% return and significant outperformance in the consumer universe over the previous 12 months. ITC delivered an excellent result, increasing cigarette volume by 26% and expanding margins across cigarettes, paperboard, and hotels “iness. Although they expect another quarter of margin pressure in FMCG, strong traction in other businesses will enable ITC to sustain double-digit profit growth.

Our View

The current quarter’s sales growth represents the company’s full recovery across all areas. Furthermore, on a three-year CAGR basis, sales growth is 16.9 %, which is significantly higher than that of many other FMCG companies.

After several quarters of disruption and lacklustre growth, ITC has seen substantial growth across all segments. We anticipate the company will be able to maintain high single-digit growth in cigarettes and double-digit growth in all other categories in the future.

 

About the Author

Ketan Sonalkar (SEBI Rgn No INA000011255)

Ketan Sonalkar is a certified SEBI registered investment advisor and head of research at Univest. He is one of the finest financial trainers, with a track record of having trained more than 2000 people in offline and online models. He serves as a consultant advisor to leading fintech and financial data firms. He has over 15 years of working experience in the finance field. He runs Advisory Services for Direct Equities and Personal Finance Transformation.

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