Dabur India net profit falls 6.4% to Rs 371.49 crore in March quarter

Homegrown FMCG major Dabur India Ltd on Thursday reported a fall of 6.46 per cent in consolidated net profit to Rs 371.49 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2019.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 397.18 crore in the January-March quarter a year ago, Dabur India said in a BSE filing.

Its total income stood at Rs 2,194.25 crore, a rise of 4.18 per cent as compared with Rs 2,106.15 crore of the year-ago quarter.

Dabur's total expense was Rs 1,729.59 crore as against Rs 1,603.56 crore a year ago, up 7.85 per cent.

Revenue from the firm's consumer care business rose 6.62 per cent to Rs 1,788.56 crore during the quarter, against Rs 1,677.43 crore in the March 2018 quarter.

Its food business stood fell 4.88 per cent to Rs 279.07 crore in January-March 2019 as compared with Rs 293.40 crore in the year-ago period, while the company's retail business rose 12.80 per cent to Rs 31.46 crore from Rs 27.89 crore a year ago.

For the entire financial year 2018-19, Dabur's profit stood at Rs 1,446.25 crore as against Rs 1,357.74 crore in the previous year.

The firm's total income in the last fiscal stood at Rs 8,829.22 crore. It was Rs 8,053.52 crore in 2017-18.

"Dabur's domestic FMCG business recorded a growth of 13 per cent in 2018-19. The performance of our international business was, however, relatively muted due to a challenging macroeconomic environment," said Dabur India Chief Executive Officer Mohit Malhotra.

Meanwhile, in a separate filing, Dabur India said its board in a meeting held on Thursday recommended a final dividend of Rs 1.50 per equity share having a face value of Re 1 each for the financial year 2018-19.

On the outlook, he said, "Going forward, we will continue to invest behind our brands to successfully tap the significant growth opportunities and deliver profitable volume-led growth."

Shares of Dabur India Ltd slid 3.91 per cent to Rs 382.45 apiece on the BSE from the previous close.