Nestle has announced that it will be revamping its senior leadership and operating structure even as the food giant cut its full-year sales outlook following weaker-than-expected nine-month underlying sales growth.

Nestle said it now expects 2024 organic sales growth to be around 2 per cent and an underlying trading operating profit (UTOP) margin of about 17 per cent.

New CEO Laurent Freixe said he planned to reduce the size of Nestle’s executive board, merge the company’s Latin America and North America units, and merge its Greater China and Asia, Oceania and Africa businesses, among other changes.

Earlier, in the day, the Indian arm of Nestle reported a 0.94 per cent decline in its net profit in the quarter ended September 30 at ₹899.49 crore.

The company had posted a net profit of ₹908.08 crore a year ago.

However, Nestle India’s revenue from the sale of products was up 1.3 per cent to ₹5,074.76 crore in the September quarter. It was ₹5,009.52 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

Axis Bank

Axis Bank’s consolidated net profit for the September quarter rose 19.29 per cent to ₹7,401.26 crore but the lender reported a setback in the unsecured lending segment.

On a standalone basis, the lender’s net profit grew 18 per cent to ₹6,917.57 crore in the reporting quarter.

The bank saw the core net interest income grow 9 per cent to ₹13,483 crore on the back of an 11 per cent increase in the net advances and the net interest margin narrowing by 0.12 per cent to 3.99 per cent.

LTI Mindtree

LTIMindtree on Thursday reported a net profit of ₹1,251.6 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, a growth of 7.7 per cent over ₹1,162.3 crore a year ago.

Revenue was ₹9,432.9 crore, up 5.9 per cent from ₹8,905.4 crore a year ago on the back of large deals. The EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) margin was 15.5 per cent during Q2FY25, slightly less than the 16 per cent in Q2FY24. The margin is expected to remain under pressure with a 200 basis point impact on account of a wage hike scheduled in the third quarter.

“Q2 was a good quarter marked by broad based sequential growth across all our verticals and geographies. We had several multi year deal closures, including a $200 million plus deal,” said Debashis Chatterjee, MD and CEO, LTIMindtree.

Jindal Stainless

Unbridled dumping from China and Vietnam and a shrinking pie in exports has weighed on the profitability of India’s largest stainless steelmaker Jindal Stainless, which posted a 20 per cent drop in profit after tax in Q2FY25 at ₹609 crore compared with ₹764 crore in Q2FY24.

Revenues from operations were flat at ₹9,777 crore compared with ₹9,797 crore a year ago. Sales volume went up year-on-year to 565,000 tonnes in Q2FY25 compared with 544,000 tonnes in Q2FY24.

Managing director Abhyuday Jindal said, “India’s growth story is the single biggest driver of domestic manufacturing, especially in times of global uncertainties causing continued slowdown in exports.”