India's Godrej Agrovet posts Q2 profit jump as monsoon recovery aids demand

Godrej Agrovet

03/11/2023 13:12

BENGALURU, Nov 3 (Reuters) - India's Godrej Agrovet
 GODE.NS  reported a near-47% jump in second-quarter profit on
Friday as a pickup in rainfall in September uplifted the sale of
its farm feed products. 
    The company's consolidated net profit rose to 1.05 billion
rupees ($12.61 million) for the three months ended Sept. 30 from
717.6 million rupees a year earlier.
    A late monsoon revival aided sowing and other farm
activities, pushing up sales volumes of Godrej Agrovet's
products such as cattle, poultry and aqua feed. 
    Animal feed business forms half of the company's topline.
Cattle and aqua feed volumes grew 16% and 15%, respectively,
year-on-year, it said in a statement. 
    Total revenue rose 5% to 25.71 billion rupees, breaking the
streak of slowing topline growth since the quarter ended March
2022. 
    Analysts had earlier flagged fears of a sluggish demand, on
the back of the weakest monsoon in five years. 
    Godrej Agrovet's core profit margins in the quarter expanded
to 8.3% from 6.5% a year earlier.
    Analysts were betting on a rainfall-led improvement across
all segments to drive margin expansion, despite stressed prices
due to higher inventories and oversupply from China. 
    The company, which also operates in vegetable oil, dairy and
crop protection businesses, saw its total expenses inch about
3.5%. 
    Shares of Godrej Agrovet closed 1.43% up on Friday ahead of
the results.

($1 = 83.2700 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya and Hritam Mukherjee in
Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami)
 ((Navamya.GaneshAcharya@thomsonreuters.com; +91 8805175330 ;))