United Breweries shares surge 15% after net profit nearly triples in September quarter

Shares of United Breweries, the maker of Kingfisher beer, jumped as much as 15% to hit an intraday high of ₹1,317 after the company post market hours on Tuesday reported its September quarter earnings.

The Bengaluru-based company reported a standalone net profit of ₹136 crore in the second quarter of current financial year, marking an increase of 190% from ₹47 crore in the same period last year.

Its revenue from operations advanced 24% to ₹4,621 crore at the end of September quarter compared with ₹3,736 crore in the year-ago period.

United Breweries reported strong operational performance as its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) also known as operating profit jumped 100% to ₹260 crore from ₹130 crore.

Its EBITDA margin improved by 210 basis points (bps) to 5.63%.

The Kingfisher maker said that its category growth accelerated this quarter and it delivered 16% sell-in volume growth with 38% premium volume growth.

United Breweries said that its gross profit margin improved by 194 bps as structural interventions offset the Middle-East war impact.

For the first half current financial year, United Breweries said that volume growth primarily driven by West region (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh) and South region (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh).

In the first half its EBIT increased by ₹120 crore, with EBIT margin expanding by 129 bps, driven by gross profit margin growth and disciplined cost management offsetting the impact of the Middle -East war.

As of 11:12 am, United Breweries shares traded 8.4% higher at ₹1,240, outperforming the NIFTY LARGEMIDCAP 250 index which was down 0.33%.