Marico Q4 net up 20%

Net sales of the company for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, rose to Rs 997 cr

FMCG major Marico Ltd today posted a 20.33% rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 83.86 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, mainly on account of robust domestic FMCG business.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 69.69 crore in the January-March period of previous fiscal.

Net sales of the company for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, rose to Rs 997.25 crore, against Rs 909.36 crore during the same period of 2011-12 fiscal, Marico Ltd said in a statement.

Commenting on the results, Marico CEO Saugata Gupta said the unification of the domestic and international FMCG business opens up a lot of opportunities to leverage synergistic benefits.

"We will leverage scale across common product platforms and benefit from best practice deployment across geographies. I am excited about the journey ahead," Gupta added.

Marico said its FMCG business in India achieved a turnover of Rs 3,253 crore, a growth of about 18% over FY12. The turnover of acquired youth brands, including Set Wet, Zatak and Livon amounted to Rs 139 crore during the year, it added.

For the full fiscal ended March 31, 2013, the company posted a net profit of Rs 395.86 crore, compared to Rs 317.11 crore in the 2011-12 fiscal.

The company's net sales for the 2012-13 fiscal rose to Rs 4,584.39 crore against Rs 3,968.19 crore in the previous fiscal.     

The company's international FMCG business achieved a turnover of Rs 1,007 crore (USD 186 million) during FY13 and reported a growth of 8% over FY12.     

Marico said overall business environment in Bangladesh remained challenging throughout the year.

"The business lost valuable business days owing to strikes in the country over the past few months," it added.  

During the year FY13, the company said its Kaya business achieved a turnover of Rs 336 crore registering a growth of about 21% over FY12.     

Meanwhile Marico's board, which met today, declared a second interim dividend of Re 0.50 per equity share of Re 1 each for the financial year 2012-13.     

Shares of Marico today closed at Rs 225.30 on the BSE, up 1.12% from its previous close.