India's Metro Brands beats quarterly profit estimates on strong demand for premium footwear

Metro Brands

22/05/2025 15:40

May 22 (Reuters) - Footwear retailer Metro Brands METB.NS reported fourth quarter profit above expectations on Thursday, benefiting from strong demand for its premium products in a quarter that generally sees a high number of weddings.

The company's consolidated profit after tax of 947.5 million Indian rupees ($11.02 million) for the quarter ended March 31 came in above analysts' estimate of 881 million rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Its quarterly profit was about 39% lower than a year ago, due to a tax benefit in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024.

Metro, which also sells brands such as Crocs and Fila besides its own, reported a revenue growth of 10.3% to 6.43 billion rupees in the fourth quarter.

Expenses rose about 7%, outpaced by the rise in revenue.

KEY CONTEXT

Demand remains strong for products that cater to upper middle class and richer Indians, despite the dampening effect of the high cost of living on overall urban consumption.

Metro Brands has, in recent quarters, benefited from premiumization. The portion of its sales derived from footwear retailing for more than 3,000 rupees grew to 54% in fiscal 2025, from 50% in fiscal 2024.

The company also flagged the boost to sales from India's winter wedding season, that can run from November to February.

Metro Brands' peers Bata India BATA.NS and Campus Activewear CAMU.NS have not yet reported results. Relaxo Footwears RLXO.NS earlier this month reported a decline in fourth quarter revenue, profit after tax and number of footwear sold.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 months)
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 (%)
Metro Brands
METB.NS
66.91
35.11
17.15
28.77
Buy
20
0.94
0.51
Bata India
BATA.NS
49.96
19.34
8.49
7.59
Hold
10
0.94
1.51
Campus Activewear
CAMU.NS
52.28
27.14
13.89
28.00
Buy
7
0.89
Relaxo Footwears
RLXO.NS
49.82
24.11
8.73
20.94
Hold
9
0.88
0.69

* 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

JANUARY TO MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE

 -- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 86.0040  Indian rupees

METRO BRANDS JANUARY TO MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE https://tmsnrt.rs/43xbwZB

 (Reporting by Ananta Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

 ((Ananta.agarwal@thomsonreuters.com;))