Stellar Third-Quarter Show Lifts 1625 Cos' Sales, Bottomline

Excellent third-quarter sales performance by major companies propelled the topline growth in the third quarter this fiscal, scoring over the growth rate during the first and second quarters.

An analysis on a sample of 1,625 companies, whose comparative figures are available for the three quarters, shows that nearly 212 major companies with sales income above Rs 100 crore for the third quarter (Q3) witnessed a 28.5 per cent rise in sales and a net profit growth of 29.3 per cent.

These 212 companies accounted for 84 per cent of the 1,625 companies' sales and net profit for the third quarter.

 

The 212 companies reported a rise of 11.2 per cent in sales and 4.1 per cent in net profit during the first quarter (Q1), and in the second quarter (Q2) they saw a 17.6 per cent rise in sales and 13.9 per cent in net profit.

The next 143 companies, with sales income above Rs 50 crore and below Rs 100 crore, reported a rise of 12.7 per cent in sales, but a hefty 99 per cent rise in net profit during Q3.

These 143 companies witnessed a 7.6 per cent rise in sales and a 12 per cent increase in net profit in Q1.

In Q2 they witnessed a 5.4 per cent rise in sales and 16.3 per cent in net profit.

The remaining 1,270 companies, with sales below Rs 50 crore, notched up an 8.1 per cent rise in sales and a 51.7 per cent rise in net profit in the third quarter. In Q1, they saw sales and net profit rise by 5 per cent each. In the second quarter, the bottomline of these companies saw an upturn with a rise of 29.1 per cent. Sales were up 4.2 per cent in Q2.

Meanwhile, the 1,625 companies reported an aggregate increase of 25.2 per cent in sales and a substantial 31.5 per cent rise in net profit in third quarter ended December 1999. As against this, in the Q1 ended June 1999, the aggregates of these 1,625 companies grew at a tardy 10.3 per cent and net profit at a modest 4.4 per cent.

Prudent cost-cutting and lower interest outgo in the third quarter pulled up the bottomline further. Interest payment grew by nominal 2.8 per cent in the Q3, while in the first quarter it grew by 5.1 per cent and by 4.9 per cent in the second quarter.

On the sectoral front, the top five sectors ranked on sales growth, namely, information technology, refineries, automobiles, auto ancillaries and entertainment also fared better in Q3, than in Q1 or Q2.

Information Technologies, which witnessed a 29 per cent growth in sales during the first and the second quarters each, saw a growth of a hefty 41.3 per cent. In terms of net profit, it fluctuated from 80.5 per cent in the first quarter down to 59.7 per cent in Q2 and then up to a hefty 89.5 per cent in Q3.

Excellent export performance and shift to Net-related business has been a further boost for the IT players.

THE AGGREGATES

No of cos : 1625

Quarter ended

Jun'99 %chg Sep'99 %chg

Sales 1,32083 10.3 1,47,634 15.3

Other income 2,393 0.3 3,200 -9.4

Operating profit 21,028 7.7 24,841 12.5

Interest 6,937 5.1 7,222 4.9

Gross profit 14,091 8.9 17,619 16.0

Depreciation 6,370 13.9 7,041 19.7

Tax 1,765 7.7 2,269 10.5

Net profit 5,955 4.4 8,310 14.8

OPM (%) 15.9 -2.4 16.8 -2.4

GPM (%) 10.7 -1.2 11.9 0.6

NPM (%) 4.5 -5.3 5.6 -0.6

Rs crore

Nine months to

Dec'99 % chg Dec '99 % chg

Sales 1,61,837 25.2 4,41,553 17.1

Other income 2,859 1.4 8,452 -3.3

Operating profit 24,898 18.8 70,767 13.1

Interest 7,102 2.8 21,261 4.3

Gross profit 17,796 26.7 49,506 17.4

Depreciation 7,366 22.3 20,777 18.8

Tax 2,468 25.4 6,502 14.9

Net profit 7,962 31.5 22,227 16.9

OPM (%) 15.4 -5.1 16.0 -3.4

GPM (%) 11.0 1.2 11.2 0.3

NPM (%) 4.9 5.0 5.0 -0.2