Maruti's revenue in top gear, Bharti Airtel connects with consumers

Maruti reports revenue of Rs 43,701 cr in 2013-14 while Bharti Airtel's revenue is at Rs 49,919

Even as telecom companies bear the brunt of cut-throat competition in the sector, Bharti Airtel remains the undisputed king among India's private non-financial consumer product & services companies. Going by its financials for 2013-14, the telco is the largest company in the segment; rivals Vodafone and Idea Cellular also stand among the top seven - at the fourth and seventh spots, respectively.

Similarly, despite the automobile sector facing troubles with a sales slowdown causing a decline in revenues, Maruti Suzuki takes the second position. And, that mobile phone sales in India are booming is visible in the performance of South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung, which is third.

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies have a strong representation, too, with ITC coming fifth and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) sixth among the largest non-financial consumer product & services companies in 2013-14.

In fact, if net profit is taken as the criterion, ITC is the biggest (Rs 8,785 crore), exceeding Bharti's Rs 6,600-crore profit by a huge margin. Also, ITC's net profit margin on revenue of 26.4 per cent is far wider than the 13.8 per cent of HUL, which stands second on this count.

The margins in the consumer electronics business, as reflected in Samsung's profit book, have been very low. The Korean firm has a net profit margin of only 6.5 per cent. Likewise, Maruti's net profit margin, despite its large revenue, is only 6.3 per cent.

However, if you consider the fastest rate of annual revenue growth, Samsung steals the show - its revenue in 2013-14 grew 45 per cent over the previous year. The second in this is Idea Cellular, whose revenue grew 18.5 per cent.

According to BSE, Bharti Airtel's revenue (on a standalone basis, excluding that from foreign operations and their subsidiaries) stood at Rs 49,919 crore. Maruti Suzuki's revenue for 2013-14 was Rs 43,701 crore. Samsung reported a revenue of Rs 40,392 crore, according to its filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

If Bharti Airtel's consolidated revenue (including Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other operations) is taken into account, the number stands at Rs 85,863 crore, while its consolidated revenue from India alone comes to about Rs 65,877 crore. Also, Bharti Airtel, ITC, Maruti, Samsung and Idea Cellular show improvement in terms of net profit as a proportion of total revenue. HUL's net profit margin to revenue, though, fell to 13.8 per cent in 2013-14 from 14.7 per cent the previous year.

Samsung's dramatic revenue growth helped it jump in ranking from sixth in 2011-12 to third. Its net profit over revenue also saw a sharp increase - from 18 per cent in 2011-12 to 6.5 per cent.

"Growth of consumer companies - both product and services - indicates a positive consumer sentiment and an increasing spending power of the fast-growing Indian middle class, mainly the upwardly mobile double-income families," says a senior executive of a global management consulting firm.