India's Blue Star posts bigger-than-expected fall in quarterly profit on one-off labour charge

Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India

29/01/2026 10:55

Jan 29 (Reuters) - Indian air conditioner maker Blue Star BLUS.NS reported a bigger-than-expected 39% fall in third-quarter profit on Thursday due to a one-time charge relating to India's labour code revamp and weakness in its unitary products business.

The company's consolidated net profit fell to 806.6 million rupees ($8.77 million) in the three months ended December 31 from 1.33 billion rupees last year.

Analysts had expected 1.26 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.

The firm booked a one-time charge of 563.5 million rupees linked to India's new labour code.

Revenue from operations of rose 4% to 29.25 billion rupees, missing estimates of 30.88 billion rupees.

KEY CONTEXT

India's new labour codes — the country's biggest overhaul of workers' laws in decades — have dragged profits of corporate firms across sectors, from Godrej Consumer Products GOCP.NS and Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India MAHH.NS to Wipro WIPR.NS and Infosys INFY.NS.

Revenue from Blue Star's unitary products business, which sells room air conditioners and commercial refrigeration systems and accounts for about half of the topline, also dropped marginally.

The company added that its commercial refrigeration systems business logged muted performance, but did not elaborate.

PEER COMPARISON

Estimates (next 12 months)
Analysts' sentiment
RIC
PE
EV/EBITDA
Revenue growth (%)
Profit growth (%)
Mean rating*
No. of analysts
Stock to price target**
Div yield (%)
Blue Star Ltd
BLUS.NS
47.11
31.28
16.36
28.85
Hold
23
0.92
0.53
Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd
CROP.NS
22.91
14.93
11.66
21.64
Buy
32
0.61
1.33
Voltas Ltd
VOLT.NS
46.85
37.14
16.06
50.57
Hold
37
0.98
0.51
Havells India Ltd
HVEL.NS
42.39
28.27
15.30
23.74
Buy
25
0.78
0.78

* The mean of analyst 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

OCTOBER TO DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- Note: Peer LG Electronics India  LGEL.NS not included in stock performance since it was listed during the reported quarter in October.

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 91.9375 Indian rupees

Blue Star Q3 vs peers https://tmsnrt.rs/4r4fsLp

 (Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru and Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

 ((UrviManoj.Dugar@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9558725583;))