India's P&G Hygiene and Health Care posts over 36% rise in Q1 profit

Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care

30/10/2023 13:53

BENGALURU, Oct 30 (Reuters) - India's Procter & Gamble
Hygiene and Health Care  PROC.NS  on Monday reported a 36.5%
rise in first-quarter profit as easing inflation helped revive
demand across the country, including in the rural belt. 
    The company's profit for the three months ended Sept. 30.
rose to 2.11 billion rupees from 1.54 billion rupees a year
earlier.
    Cooling inflation and rising awareness of personal hygiene
have driven demand for companies like Procter & Gamble Hygiene
and Health Care, which said in an analyst call in September that
it saw growing adoption of feminine hygiene products such as
sanitary napkins, especially in rural areas.
    However, the maker of Pampers diapers and Whisper sanitary
napkins did not specify how much demand its rural business
accounted for.
    With moderated food prices, rural demand has seen green
shoots as India's annual retail inflation eased to 6.83% in
August from 7.44% in July, further easing to 5.02% in September.
    The company's income from the sale of products rose 9.04% to
11.35 billion rupees, while revenue from operations rose 8.9%.
    Total expenses for the quarter rose 2.8% to 8.70 billion
rupees, while input costs fell 18.7%. 
    Brokerage Motilal Oswal said there was "huge category growth
potential" in the feminine hygiene segment and a potential for
higher margin gains from "premiumisation" in the category in the
long term.
    The company's shares fell 1.9% ahead of the results. The
stock has risen 14.8% this year compared with a 15.9% gain in
the Nifty index for fast-moving consumer goods  .NIFTYFMCG 
companies.
 
($1 = 83.2090 Indian rupees)
    

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