Varun Beverages Q2 profit jumps by 84 pc at Rs 81 crore

Varun Beverages Limited (VBL), a key player in beverage industry and one of the largest franchisee of PepsiCo worldwide, said on Monday that its profit after tax moved up by 83.7 per cent at Rs 81.12 crore for the July to September quarter on the back of robust volume growth.

The company had posted a profit of Rs 44.16 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations (net of excise and Goods and Services Tax) grew by 49.2 per cent YoY to Rs 1,739.73 crore as compared to Rs 1,165.74 crore, the company said in a statement.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 54.2 per cent to Rs 325.66 crore from Rs 211.24 crore.

"Our India business has delivered organic volume growth of 17.5 per cent and our international territories have registered a 27 per cent growth led by exceptional performance in under-penetrated territories acquired in 2017 and early 2018," said Chairman Ravi Jaipuria.

"Moreover, our key markets like Morocco, Zimbabwe, Nepal and Sri Lanka also reported double-digit growth in the current quarter," he said in a statement.

Total sales volumes were up 60.4 per cent year-on-year at 124.5 million unit cases in July to September as compared to 77.6 million unit cases in the same period of last year.

In a key development, Varun Beverages raised Rs 900 crore through the qualified institutional placement (QIP) route. "This capital raise considerably strengthens our balance sheet and provides room for sustained future growth," said Jaipuria.

"Our growth initiatives continue to be on track including setting up of a greenfield facility at Pathankot, acquisition of south and west India sub-territories and other investments to drive growth.