Adani Wilmar Q4 profit down 60% to Rs 94 cr on lower margin as edible oil rate falls

New Delhi: Edible oil major Adani Wilmar on Wednesday reported 60 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 93.61 crore for the quarter ended March 2023 on lower revenue amid decline in prices of cooking oils.

Adani Wilmar, an equal joint venture between Adani Group and Singapore's Wilmar, sells edible oil under Fortune brand. It also sells some food products like rice, wheat flour and sugar.

Its net profit stood at Rs 234.29 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income fell to Rs 13,945.02 crore in January-March 2022-23 from Rs 14,979.83 crore in the year-ago period, Adani Wilmar said in a regulatory filing.

Consolidated revenue witnessed decline due to fall in prices of edible oil, the company said.

During the full last fiscal, Adani Wilmar's net profit fell to Rs 582.12 crore from Rs 803.73 crore in the previous year. Total income, however, rose to Rs 58,446.16 crore from Rs 54,327.16 crore in the previous year.

"Our margins during the quarter and full year got impacted by high-cost inventory in a falling edible oil price environment, inflation impact on our operational costs and an increase in interest costs due to rate hikes," Adani Wilmar MD & CEO Angshu Mallick said.

The company reported a year-on-year volume growth of 14 per cent in FY23 at consolidated level. It crossed the milestone of 5 million tonne of sales in FY23, enabled by scaling up of select products and having a large addressable market.

"A large market opportunity in India is translating well into our growth numbers. We have almost doubled our Food and FMCG revenues in two years and recorded Rs 4,000+ crore revenue in the segment," Mallick said.

Its key products – Wheat flour, (including SRM - Sooji, Rawa & Maida) and rice have crossed Rs 1,000 crore of revenues during the year, he highlighted.

"In edible oil, branded sales, with 75 per cent saliency, we have done significantly better with 8 per cent YoY (year-on-year) volume growth in FY23. In Industry essentials segment, we made good progress with our forward integration plans in specialty chemicals," Mallick said.

He noted that the company is investing in the business to support growth.

Adani Wilmar said it closed the last fiscal with around Rs 4,000 crore of revenue in Food & FMCG segment, registering a strong growth of 39 per cent YoY in volumes and 55 per cent YoY in revenue terms, while seeding multiple new avenues of growth during the year.

"H1'23 witnessed multiple macro events causing high volatility in edible oil prices, with record high prices in Q1 and subsequent crash of prices in Q2. In H2’23, prices have been gradually declining reaching lower levels, and leading to better demand trends in the second half of the year. Food prices also witnessed high inflation in H1, which started cooling off in the second half," the company said.