Piramal reports 20 pc hike in Q3 profit at Rs 724 crore

Piramal Enterprises Ltd on Tuesday posted 20 per cent jump in its net profit during the third quarter of current fiscal year (Q3 FY20) at Rs 724 crore compared to Rs 602 crore in Q3 FY19.

For the first nine months of FY20, its net profit totals to Rs 1,749 crores versus Rs 1,462 crores in 9M FY19. The revenue in Q3 FY20 moved up by 9 per cent to Rs 3,806 crore compared to Rs 3,489 crore in the year-on period.

"We are pleased to announce consistent performance demonstrated by 14 per cent year-on-year revenue growth to Rs 10,915 crore and net profit growth by 20 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,749 crore for nine months FY20, especially given the sectoral volatility in the markets that we operate in," said Chairman Ajay Piramal.

"By end of FY20, we will have exceeded our earlier stated commitment of bringing in Rs 8,000 crore to 10,000 crore of equity in the company with inflows of up to Rs 14,500 crore through various initiatives including preferential allotment to Canadian institutional investor CDPQ, sale of Decision Resources Group (DRG) and our rights issue that witnessed active participation from most existing large investors including the promoters," he said in a statement.

Piramal said the company's repeated partnerships with marquee global and domestic investors are an affirmation of the robustness of its business model and future growth trajectory.

"With this capital infusion, our company is well-capitalised to tap both organic and inorganic opportunities arising from industry consolidation and effectively transform our financial services business from a largely wholesale business into a well-diversified financial services business."

In pharma business, Piramal plans to further raise additional equity capital for its future growth. "Infusion of additional capital in pharma is the next step towards unlocking value of the company," said Piramal.

At the same time, the company is transforming the financial services business into a well-diversified model across both wholesale and retail financing.

Piramal had gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio of 1.8 per cent as of December 2019 versus 0.9 per cent as of September 2019 as few accounts moved from stage two to stage three.

The company witnessed no major loss given default since September 2018 as a result of the strong risk management, governance framework and healthy security cover.

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