Interview: India's Redington expects double-digit growth, to enter new markets

Redington

17/02/2023 11:47

By Praveen Paramasivam
       CHENNAI, Feb 17 (Reuters) - India's Redington Ltd
 REDI.NS  is targeting double-digit revenue growth for the next
financial year and a foray into new markets, betting on a
pandemic-led push for digitising corporate and government
offices, its top boss told Reuters on Friday.
    Redington, which distributes products for over 290 brands,
including Apple  AAPL.O  and Samsung  005930.KS , is looking to
enter about a dozen new countries like Indonesia, Myanmar and
Azerbaijan in the next couple of quarters, Managing Director
Rajiv Srivastava said.
    Chennai-based Redington, which operates in 38 countries, is
also increasing its 4,500-odd workforce by 5% globally in about
a year.
    The expansion comes at a time when global economies are
contending with a slowdown, and the pandemic-led demand for
consumer electronics is fading out as schools and offices
reopened.
    Still, the drive towards digitisation by governments and
businesses is a "one-way street" as offices would have to
continue to spend on servers, storage and software upgrades
driving revenue growth for companies like Redington, Srivastava
said in the interview.
    Redington earlier this month recorded its highest-ever
quarterly revenue for the three months ended Dec. 31 even as its
profit slipped due to higher expenses.
    Srivastava said Redington, which has reported a double-digit
topline growth for the last three years, would continue to be on
a similar trajectory for the year ending March 2024.
    Analysts, on average, expect revenue for the period to climb
nearly 11% to 862.74 billion rupees ($10.42 billion), according
to IBES data from Refinitiv.
    The Redington MD further said that new gadget launches would
now reach Indian consumers faster, given the recent electronics
manufacturing boom coming on the back of global businesses
looking to limit their reliance on China.
    The company's shares, which climbed nearly 25% in 2022,
closed marginally lower at 179.85 rupees on Friday.
($1 = 82.8140 Indian rupees)
 (Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Sohini
Goswami)
 ((Praveen.Paramasivam@thomsonreuters.com; +91 867-525-3569;))