India's Bayer CropScience quarterly profit falls on weak demand

SRF

23/05/2024 15:10

BENGALURU, May 23 (Reuters) - Bayer CropScience  BAYE.NS , the Indian unit of German drug
and pesticide maker Bayer AG  BAYGn.DE , reported a 39.4% fall in quarterly profit on Thursday,
hurt by sluggish demand for its crop-protection products such as Aliette and Alanto.
    The company's profit fell to 960 million rupees ($11.5 million) during the three months ended
March 31 from 1.59 billion rupees a year earlier.
    Revenue from operations fell 19.4% to 7.92 billion rupees from 9.83 billion rupees a year
ago.
    For further results highlights, click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN3HQ179
    
KEY CONTEXT
    Agrochemical and fertiliser companies in India, including Coromandel International  CORF.NS 
and SRF  SRFL.NS , faced a lackluster fourth quarter, largely due to the destocking of inventory
- the process of emptying excess inventory levels following low demand.   
    Analysts are optimistic about the fiscal 2025 outlook for domestic agri-input firms on
expectations of a better monsoon and higher nutrient-based subsidy - a government programme that
subsidises fertilisers depending on their nutrient content - in the first half of 2025.
     
PEER COMPARISON       

    
                            Valuation(next  Estimates (next 12  Analysts' sentiment         
                             12 months)          months)                                    
                RIC         PE      EV/EBI  Revenue  profit     Mean    No of     Stock to  Div
                                    TDA     growth   growth     rating  analysts  price     yield
                                            (%)      (%)        *                 target**  (%)
 Bayer           BAYE.NS     27.27   19.31   9.52      10.92    BUY            8    0.93     2.36
 Cropscience                                                                                
 PI Industries   PIIL.NS     30.58   22.35   16.12     8.09     BUY           24    0.89     0.32
 Rallis India    RALL.NS     25.64   12.81   13.60     31.00    HOLD          14    1.08     0.92
 UPL             UPLL.NS     18.04    7.48   7.21      NULL     BUY           25    0.89     1.95
 
* Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong
Sell
** 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-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE
    
    
    
-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 83.2230 rupees        


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Bayer CropScience March Qtr 2024 vs Peers    https://tmsnrt.rs/3QYsKto
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 (Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar)
 ((ashish.chandra@thomsonreuters.com; +91 7982114624;))