Aditya Birla Fashion posts Q3 net profit at Rs 58 crore

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL) on Monday reported profit after tax of Rs 58 crore on revenues of Rs 2,076 crore during the October to December quarter.

It had posted a net loss of Rs 38 crore on revenues of Rs 2,583 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal. Sequentially (Q2 FY21), it had clocked a loss of Rs 188 crore on a turnover of Rs 1,028 crore due to the Covid-19 induced countrywide lockdown.

In Q3 FY21, the company posted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) at Rs 422 crore against Rs 423 crore year-on-year and Rs 136 crore quarter-on-quarter.

The pace and extent of recovery that started with the opening of stores in Q2 was amplified on the back of a large pent up demand, strong festive spirit and a concentrated wedding season.

A combination of the above factors led to an upsurge in sales to almost double of Q2 levels, said the company. Aided by the performance of businesses along with aggressive cost and working capital control measures, ABFRL generated nearly Rs 588 crore cash during the quarter.

With expected cash flows from operations next quarter, coupled with equity proceeds received through the rights issue and preferential allotment to Flipkart, the company said it is on course to close this fiscal with a net debt reduction of 90 per cent over the start of the year.

"This emphasises single-minded focus of the management towards correcting capital structure," it said. In view of strong recovery and to leverage its competitive position, the company accelerated the network expansion plan by adding close to 300 stores during this fiscal so far.

"ABFRL is confident that the business recovery will continue as the impact of the pandemic wears down over the next few quarters and expects to resume its consistent growth trajectory next year," it said.

The company has a network of 3,157 stores across 29,900 multi-brand outlets with 6,835 points of sale in department stores across India. It has a repertoire of market-leading brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England established for over 25 years. Pantaloons is one of India's largest value retail brand

( With inputs from ANI )