Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation IRCTC, the tourism and ticketing arm of Indian Railways, is set to report its March quarter results today. Prabhudas Lilladher expects adjusted profit to grow 19.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 258.60 crore, compared to Rs 216.60 crore in the quarter last year. Revenue is forecast to rise 36.6 per cent YoY to 944.20 crore from 691 Rs. YoY, thanks to base effect and continued traction in non-convenience income Catering business. Online booking is expected to reach 10.4 crore tickets for the quarter.
Prabhudas Lilladher expects Ebitda margin of 36 per cent, against 40.1 per cent YoY because of falling contribution of high margin ticketing business.
The cumulative non-suburban passenger reservation system PRS traffic rose to 16.5 crore, he said, excluding the last 11 days of March. Assuming in March 3rd bucket period, passenger traffic settles down at 2.2 crore, similar to bucket-2 collective passenger traffic for the quarter would stand at 18.7 crore.
IRCTC, the sole organisation authorised by Indian Railways to provide catering services to railways, online railway tickets, and packaged drinking water at railway stations and trains in India.
With 1.7-1.8 times passengers travelling per e-ticket, we expect online bookings of 10.4 crore in Q4 FY 23. We expect IRCTC's revenue to increase 36.6 per cent to Rs 904 crore with an EBITDA margin of 36 per cent, the company said in a statement.
The shares of IRCTC are down 14 per cent in the last six months and were mostly flat in the last one month.
IRCTC said net profit rose 22 per cent to 256 crore for the 12th quarter of last year compared to 209 crore in the same period last year. In the third quarter, revenue rose 70 per cent to 918 crore compared to 540 crore in the year-ago quarter. The company had announced an interim dividend of Rs. 3.50 per share.
With its quarterly results, IRCTC also plans to pay final dividends for FY 23.