India's SRF beats Q3 profit view on strong chemical business

Indian chemicals and polymers maker SRF Ltd SRF reported a better-than-expected third-quarter profit on Monday, driven by strong demand in its chemical business.

The company's consolidated profit rose about 1% to 5.11 billion Indian rupees ($62.70 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31. Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 4.92 billion rupees.

Revenue for the Gurgaon-based conglomerate's chemicals business grew 23% to 17.57 billion rupees on account of strong demand for certain key products such as fluorochemicals.

The chemicals segment accounted for about 51% of the company's overall revenue.

SRF saw strong demand from overseas markets, higher capacity-utilisation of facilities and significant cost-savings across all product streams, the company said.

Strength in the fluorochemicals business helped offset weakness in its packaging films business, which had to contend with a global demand slowdown and steep energy costs in Europe, it added.

The company's sale of products grew 1.7% to 33.69 billion rupees.

SRF also approved three projects in the December quarter, including a capex project worth 5.95 billion rupees.

Shares of the company closed up 2.9% at 2,194 rupees on Monday, ahead of the earnings. They fell 5.36% in 2022.

($1 = 81.5000 Indian rupees)