Shares of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the online ticketing and catering arm of the Indian Railways, rose 3.04% to hit an intraday high of ₹799 on Thursday. The gain was recorded after it reported January-March quarter earnings after market opened on Wednesday.
IRCTC’s consolidated net profit rose 26% to ₹358 crore in the March quarter from ₹284 crore in the same period last year.
The jump in profit came on the back of an exceptional profit of ₹46 crore and strong performance of its tourism business.
IRCTC’s operating revenue rose 10% to ₹1,268 crore as against ₹1,152 crore in the same period a year ago.
Operationally, IRCTC reported stable performance as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also known as operating profit grew 6% to ₹385 crore, but its EBITDA margin declined 110 basis points to 20.4% from 31.5% in the same period a year ago.
The company’s board recommended a final dividend of ₹2 per share.
IRCTC earned maximum revenue from its catering business in the March quarter but witnessed a marginal decline on a year-on-year basis. Revenue from the catering business fell 0.3% to ₹529 crore from ₹531 crore in the year-ago period.
The company earned ₹96 crore from packaged drinking water business Rail Neer, ₹372 crore from internet ticketing business and ₹274 crore from tourism business.
IRCTC’s pre-tax profit from catering business rose 39% to ₹64.60 crore, profit from Rail Neer rose 10% to ₹11.70 crore, profit from internet ticketing business rose 12% to ₹307 crore and profit from tourism business rose 163% to ₹50 crore.
As of 9:40 am, IRCTC shares were trading 0.42% higher at ₹779.50, outperforming the BSE 200 index which was trading on a flat note.
