ITC Ltd posted a 0.98 per cent drop in profit in the fourth quarter of FY24 because of a weak performance by the paper, paperboard and agri-business even as cigarettes and the hotel segment continued to deliver strong numbers.

Profit for the period stood at ₹5,190.71 crore in Q4FY24 compared with ₹5,242.59 crore on a consolidated basis, while revenue from operations inched up 2 per cent to reach ₹19,446.49 crore compared with ₹19,058.29 crore in Q4FY23.

For the full year, revenue grew marginally to ₹76,840.49 crore over ₹76,518.21 crore in FY23, while profit grew 6.5 per cent to ₹20,751.36 crore from ₹19,476.72 crore. The company declared a dividend of ₹7.50 per share, taking the total annual payout, including an interim dividend, to ₹13.75 a share. The cash outflow of ₹17,162.99 crore on dividend accounted for 82 per cent of ITC’s post tax profit for the year.

The board, which finalised the results, also approved the reappointment of wholetime directors Sumant Bhargavan and Supratim Dutta for two and three years, respectively.

The company described its performance as ‘resilient’ amidst a challenging environment. Despite the government’s thrust on infrastructure and household investment in real estate, ITC said private consumption grew only 3 per cent, the slowest in two decades. The weakness in consumption reflected in the volume growth of the FMCG sector in FY24. However, prospects of a normal monsoon and green shoots witnessed in rural demand recovery after several quarters, augur well for revival in consumption demand, the company said.

Burning bright

The cigarettes business, which contributes the most to ITC’s top and bottomline, nearly made up for the others’ poor performance. Revenues grew 7.5 per cent to ₹8,688.92 crore, while PBT went up 4.9 per cent to ₹4,951.17 crore. The company said the segment witnessed consolidation of volumes on a high base after a period of sustained growth momentum.

Non-tobacco FMCG, which is considered to have the most promising future, reported a 4.7 per cent drop in profit before tax to ₹479.84 crore in Q4FY24 even as the company pointed out that PBIT was up 15 per cent year-on-year on a comparable basis as Q4FY23 accrued fiscal incentives pertaining to previous periods.

The soon-to-be-demerged hotel segment reported good numbers in line with industry trends with revenue up 15 per cent to ₹931.03 crore and PBT up 29 per cent to ₹264.22 crore.

ITC informed that NCLT has directed convening a meeting of shareholders on June 6 to consider the scheme of demerger post obtaining no-objection from stock exchanges.

Agri-business, which suffered from the ban on wheat export, reported a 13 per cent drop in revenue to ₹3,136.43 crore while PBT went down by 38.75 per cent to ₹186.52 crore.

Paper, paper board and packaging business was impacted by low priced Chinese supplies in international markets (including India), muted domestic demand, surge in wood cost and high base effect. The revenue was down 6.67 per cent to ₹2,072.86 crore while PBT was down 34.59 per cent to ₹291.06 crore.