Future Retail, the flagship company of the Future Group led by Kishore Biyani, reported an 81% jump in its net profit due to higher operating leverage afforded by increasing revenue and a sharp dip in interest costs.
Net profit for October-December rose to Rs 183 cr from Rs 101 cr in the year-ago quarter and Rs 153 cr in the preceding three months.
This was largely on account of increase in operating revenue to Rs 4,693 cr from Rs 4,420 cr last year and Rs 4,506 cr in the preceding quarter.
The company said like-for-like revenue growth is 21%. However, reported revenue growth was lower due to the shut down of eZone stores, the demerger of HomeTown furniture chain and the impact of the Goods and Services Tax.
It reduced eZone store numbers from 87 to 17 over the last one year.
Gross operating margin, which gives an idea of the profitability of the company before fixed costs are applied, rose to 25.3% of revenue from 24.6% of revenue in the year ago period, but was down from 25.7% in the preceding three months.
Operating profit, including depreciation impact, was 4.4% of sales, up from 3.5% last year, but down from 4.5% in the preceding quarter.
However, a sharp decline in interest costs to Rs 23 cr from Rs 55 cr in the year-ago quarter and Rs 50 cr in the previous quarter helped Future Retail post a strong uptick in its bottom line at Rs 183 cr.
The numbers include the one-month impact of the acquisition of Hypercity Retail (India) Ltd, which was completed on 1 Dec.
The demerger of HomeTown was completed on 1 Aug 2017, and therefore, impacted sales throughout the reporting period.
The number of Big Bazaar stores increased to 259 from 231 last year, while Easy Day stores jumped to 611 from 379 last year.