India's Redington posts 22% fall in quarterly profit on slow tech gadget demand

Redington

06/11/2023 13:29

CHENNAI, Nov 6 (Reuters) - India's Redington  REDI.NS 
reported a 22% decline in quarterly profit on Monday, as the
technology gadgets distributor grappled with a global slowdown
in demand and higher expenses.
    Consolidated profit fell to 3.03 billion rupees ($36.42
million) in the second quarter from 3.87 billion rupees a year
earlier.
    Total expenses jumped nearly 18% for the quarter ended Sept.
30, Redington, which distributes products of several major
brands including Apple  AAPL.O  and Samsung  005930.KS , said in
an exchange filing.
    Earnings dropped even as the Chennai, Tamil Nadu-based
company tied up with more sales partners and expanded to more
countries, which helped revenue from operations climb 16.6% to
222.20 billion rupees.
    In the previous four quarters, Redington had reported
revenue growth between 24.6% and 30.8%.
    Revenue from its consumer and commercial personal computers,
print and supplies business in Singapore, India and South Asia -
markets that accounted for over 46% of its topline - declined
16% in the reported quarter.
    A pandemic-led spurt in demand for consumer electronics
including smartphones and laptops has slowed, squeezing the
earnings of everyone from chipmaker Qualcomm  QCOM.O  and
smartphone major Apple to distributors such as Redington.
    However, Qualcomm and Apple recently indicated smartphone
sales slump has finally started to ease, setting them up for
better quarters ahead.
    Redington has been investing heavily to beef up its cloud
services business to expand beyond technology gadgets
distribution, which brings in a bulk of its revenue and
earnings.
    The company's shares closed 2.3% higher ahead of the
results. They are down nearly 19% for the year so far.


($1 = 83.1974 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Eileen
Soreng)
 ((Praveen.Paramasivam@thomsonreuters.com; +91 867-525-3569;))