Amara Raja Batteries Q4FY23 PAT up 41% at Rs139 crore on higher inventory efficiency gains

Amara Raja Batteries reported 11.4% growth in sales revenues for the March 2023 quarter on consolidated basis at Rs2,429 crore. Revenues were down sequentially by -7.9%. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of automotive batteries in India and is currently in an aggressive foray into renewable batteries, identified as a big growth area.

For the full year FY23, the company reported net sales revenues of Rs10,388 crore compared to Rs8,697 crore in the financial year FY22. During the year, the company saw its net cash from operations improve by nearly 50% on better working capital efficiencies. The new energy business of Amara Raja batteries is being transferred into a separate entity under the slump sale basis.

Financial highlights for Mar-23 compared yoy and sequentially

For the fourth quarter, net profits were up 41%, largely on the back of inventory efficiency gains and smartly higher sales in sync with a sharp growth in the OEM demand for auto batteries. The auto battery sector still has a fairly large unorganized segment at play and it is only in the last few years that the shift to the organized segment has been more pronounced. The company has been a big beneficiary of this trend.

The net margins improved in the quarter from 4.53% to 5.74% on a yoy basis in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year FY23. The board has recommended final dividend of Rs3.20 per share on a face value of Rs1 per share. Earlier the company had also paid an interim dividend of Rs2.90 per share taking the total dividend for the fiscal year to Rs6.10 per share.