United Spirits net up 21.4% to Rs 78.81 crore in Q3

Bengaluru-based United Spirits, India’s largest maker of spirits, on Saturday reported a standalone net profit of Rs 78.81 crore for the third quarter ended December 2014, showing a growth of 21.4 per cent.

In the corresponding quarter of the last financial year, its net profit was Rs 64.92 crore.

Its net sales during the quarter were up 2.23 per cent to Rs 2,288 crore as against Rs 2,238 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The operating profit for the third quarter went up 4.4 per cent to Rs 213 crore as against Rs 204 crore in the same quarter last year.

The company has seen 4.7 per cent growth in volume and nine per cent rise in value in the strategic prestige and above brands during the quarter. Despite volume sales were down two per cent, the value of sales were up 5.3 per cent, the company said in a statement.

During the quarter, the strategic end of the portfolio comprising the Prestige and above brands at 9.4 million out of an overall volume of 30.9 million represents a 30 per cent salience of the category to the total.

While Ebidta for the quarter at Rs 238 crore is at 10.4 per cent of sales, up nearly 50 basis points from the comparable three-month period of the previous year (9.9 per cent), the one-time costs that formed a part of the P&L in Q1 of FY15 have pulled down the Ebidta margin for the nine month period to 9.7 per cent.

During the quarter under review, interest costs at Rs 148.5 crore are marginally lower than the immediate past quarter (Rs 155.3 crore). This is also lower than the comparable quarter of the previous year (Rs 150.3 crore) which itself was depressed at due to the repayments of borrowings out of the proceeds of the preferential issue of equity capital.

“USL is in the process of revamping its banking relationships to drive advantageous terms on its borrowings and leaning on the relationships that Diageo Plc enjoys with global banks, it is already seeing a reduction in rates which is manifested in the lower costs,” the company said in a statement.

During the quarter, the company concluded the sale of its overseas subsidiary during the quarter, the company concluded the sale of its overseas subsidiary Whyte & Mackay Limited to Emperador Distillers, a Philippine-based dominant brandy player seeking to make a play in the whisky space.

A sum of 370 million pounds, out of the sale proceeds was utilised to repay the foreign currency borrowings that financed the acquisition a few years ago. The benefit of this repayment of borrowings will result in lower interest costs for the consolidated results of the company going forward, the statement added.

USL's shares ended 0.54 per cent lower at Rs 3,522.50 per share on the close of Friday's trade on BSE.