Avenue Supermarts net up 65%

The company's revenues went up 26% at Rs 3,508.26 cr in Q2 FY18 as compared to Rs 2,778.73 cr in Q2 FY17

Avenue Supermarts, which runs D-Mart stores, on Saturday posted a 65 per cent jump in its net profit for the second quarter of the current financial year, due to fall in interest charges and growth in revenues.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 191.02 crore in Q2 FY18 as compared to Rs 115.64 crore in Q2 FY17.

The company’s revenues went up 26 per cent at Rs 3,508.26 crore in Q2 FY18 as compared to Rs 2,778.73 crore in Q2 FY17.

Its finance costs went down by 65 per cent at Rs 10.93 crore in Q2 FY18 as compared to Rs 31 crore in Q2 FY17.

The company’s EBITDA margin improved from 8.4 per cent in Q2 FY17 to 9.1 per cent in Q2 FY18.

Avenue posted a 47 per cent jump in its Q4 FY17 profit numbers, which was its first quarterly earnings after listing.

Neville Noronha, chief executive and managing director, Avenue Supermarts, said, “Results have been in line with expectations. GST (goods and services tax) transition has been smooth and has settled across Avenue Supermarts and our partner network’s commercial and IT systems.”

In a call, Noronha said there still was confusion among shoppers on GST.

He said Diwali sales was sluggish due to the weather playing spoilsport in some cities and expected it to pick up closer to the festival.

The company added four stores during the quarter.

As of September 30, 2017, the company had 136 stores with retail area of 4.2 million sq ft.