(Reuters) -United Breweries, the largest beer seller in India, reported a 20.5% increase in quarterly profit on Wednesday, lifted by solid demand for higher-priced beers and lower excise duty costs.
The Kingfisher beer maker’s standalone profit rose to 973.8 million rupees ($11.50 million) in the fourth quarter ended March 31, from 808.4 million rupees an year earlier.
United Breweries, majority-owned by Netherlands-based Heineken, reported a 7.6% decline in revenue after it briefly stopped supply to India’s top beer consuming state, Telangana. Still, volumes were up 5% in the quarter, with those of premium beers jumping 24%.
Total expenses dropped 8.6%, led by a 21% decline in excise duty.
KEY CONTEXT
Indians with more means are shrugging off high cost of living to spend on indulgences from Nestle’s pricier chocolates to costlier beers sold by United Breweries, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Budweiser and Carlsberg.
In the reported quarter, however, United Breweries was at odds with Telangana over delayed payments and a lack of government approval for price increases since 2019/20.
PEER COMPARISON
Estimates (next 12 Analysts’
months) sentiment
RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div
TDA growth (%) growth rating* analyst price yield
(%) s target** (%)
United Breweries 67.03 43.41 13.62 51.54 Hold 11 1.03 0.47
Ltd
United Spirits 62.51 43.40 11.93 18.02 Buy 12 1.00 0.41
Ltd
Radico Khaitan 67.21 40.70 12.03 42.11 Buy 6 0.99 0.16
Ltd
Tilaknagar 29.95 19.15 15.14 -13.29 Strong 1 0.61 0.18
Industries Ltd Buy
* The mean of analysts’ 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 = 84.6510 Indian rupees
($1 = 84.6660 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai and Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
