(Reuters) – Venky’s India reported a drop in third-quarter revenue on Friday as weakness in its oilseeds segment more than offset upbeat sales in its mainstay poultry business, sending its shares down 5%.
Revenue from operations fell 7.5% to 8.82 billion rupees ($100.87 million) in the October-December quarter. It was hit by a decline in oilseeds revenue to 3.25 billion rupees, from 4.61 billion rupees a year earlier.
The oilseed business, which makes up about 36% of Venky’s overall revenue, has been impacted by a fall in prices of edible oil and de-oiled cake, which is used as poultry feed.
After the results, shares of the Pune-based company were trading 4.1% lower at 1829.2 rupees, as of 01:09 p.m. IST, reversing early gains of nearly 4%.
Venky’s, however, returned to profit in the third quarter, on lower raw material costs and improvement in sales and pricing in its poultry business.
The company reported third-quarter profit of 203.8 million rupees, compared with a year-ago loss of 79.4 million rupees.
Revenue from the poultry segment rose nearly 12% to 4.91 billion rupees.
Input costs, which include costs of poultry feed ingredients such as soy and maize, fell nearly 17% in the reported quarter.
($1 = 87.4400 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Ananta Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
