Q4 Results 2022: Zomato's net loss widens to Rs 360 cr on higher expenses; Ramco Cement's profit dips, Patel Engineering back in black

Q4 Results 2022: Listed companies including online food delivery platform Zomato announced their March quarter results. Others which announced their Q4 results included Ramco Cements and Patel Engineering. Here are key highlights of the results.  

Zomato Q4 results 2022: net loss widens to Rs 360 cr on higher expenses

Online food delivery platform Zomato on Monday reported widening of its consolidated net loss at Rs 359.7 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2022, impacted by higher expenses.

The company had posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 134.2 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal, Zomato said in a regulatory filing.

Consolidated revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 1,211.8 crore, as against Rs 692.4 crore in the year-ago period.

Total expenses during the fourth quarter rose to Rs 1,701.7 crore as against Rs 885 crore earlier, the company said.

For the fiscal ended March 31, 2022 as well, consolidated net loss increased to Rs 1,222.5 crore. The company had posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 816.4 crore in the previous financial year, the filing said.

Revenue from operations in FY22 stood at Rs 4,192.4 crore as against Rs 1,993.8 crore in FY21, it said.

Commenting on the performance, Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said, "We think our growth trajectory is back on track, and we don't foresee 'post-COVID ramifications' affecting our growth rate anymore. Having said that, even before COVID, growth in our business has been lumpy (and not linear) -- so it is essential to take a long term view of our business."

He further said Zomato is aiming for accelerated growth along with further reduction in losses and increasing profits in some time.

"We are clear on what our long term shareholders expect of us and we are working hard to deliver on both growth and profitability expectations," Goyal added.

On reports of Zomato acquiring Blinkit (formerly Grofers), he said, "We have committed to give them a short term loan of up to USD 150 million to fund their short term capital needs. Beyond that, there is nothing to share at this moment."

He, however, said, "We continue to remain bullish on quick commerce, especially given how synergistic it is to our core food delivery business, and are excited with the progress that Blinkit has made in this space. While there is a lot to do as the business is at its early stages, there's still a lot of low hanging fruit to drive growth and efficiency."

Blinkit has grown well in the past six months, and has also significantly reduced its operating losses, Goyal added.

Commenting on Zomato Instant, the 10-minute food delivery service pilot, Goyal said the company is still studying to understand whether customers order more if delivery time reduces to 10 minutes, and is there a business model where delivery of food can be done in 10 minutes at the same or better contribution per order than the company's existing business.

"We do not have any answers here yet as the pilot has been live for a few days and only in one location," he said, adding some update on this could be expected in the next quarter and scaling it further would depend on the outcome of the current pilot.

On the 'gig worker' shortage, he said Zomato is "seeing some stress on the availability of delivery partners in the current quarter in select large cities since the last week of April."

While terming it as short-term in nature as the post-COVID economic recovery has brought back jobs in cities, he said the company lost some delivery partners to such jobs.

Moreover, Goyal said, all the workforce which migrated to their hometowns or villages during the first COVID-19 wave has not yet come back to the cities for work, "thus hampering our delivery partner acquisition rate."
"We think things will normalise in a few weeks. We are also working on various long term initiatives to drive more stability of delivery partners in our fleet," he said. 

Zomato shares today ended at Rs 57 on the BSE, down by almost 2 per cent from the Friday closing price. 

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The Ramco Cements Q4 profit down 45% at Rs 118 cr

The Ramco Cements Ltd on Monday reported a decline of 45.22 per cent in consolidated net profit at Rs 118.27 crore for the fourth quarter ended March.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 215.92 crore during the March quarter of the previous fiscal, The Ramco Cements said in a regulatory filing.

Total revenue was up 4.94 per cent at Rs 1,722.68 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 1,641.53 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Total expenses were at Rs 1,559.77 crore, up 20.34 per cent in Q4/FY 2021-22, as against Rs 1,296.05 crore in the year-ago period.

For the fiscal year ended March 2022, The Ramco Cements' consolidated net profit was up 12.44 per cent at Rs 881.95 crore. It had reported a net profit of Rs 784.33 crore in the previous year.

Its total revenue was at Rs 6,031.69 crore in 2021-22. This is 13.34 per cent higher than Rs 5,321.37 crore in the same period a year ago.

"During FY 2021-22, the sale of cement is 11.05 million tonnes, compared to 9.98 million tonnes in the previous year with a growth of 11 per cent. The company continue to focus on the strategy of right products for right applications to make its brand stronger," The Ramco Cements said in an earning statement.

The average increase in diesel prices by 20 per cent during FY 2021-22 has resulted in an increase in all in-bound / out-bound logistics cost.

Shares of The Ramco Cements Ltd on Monday settled at Rs 679.30 per scrip on BSE, down 1.79 per cent from the previous close.

Patel Engineering back in black; posts Rs 34 crore quarterly profit

Construction company Patel Engineering Limited on Monday reported a Rs 33.58 crore consolidated net profit in the March quarter, boosted by higher income.

The company had reported a loss of Rs 145.95 crore in the January-March quarter of 2020-21 fiscal.

Its total income jumped to Rs 1,153.04 crore, from Rs 776.42 crore in the year ago quarter, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The expenses during the said period were at Rs 1,082.13 crore as compared to Rs 791.13 crore in the March quarter of the previous fiscal.

In a statement, Rupen Patel, Chairman & Managing Director, said, "We expect to continue the momentum going forward in coming quarters."

The focus of the government towards infrastructure growth would enable the company to get more orders, he added.

"Our focus on core construction business and continuous efforts to monetise our non-core assets has enabled us to achieve a good growth in this year. With regular order inflows and focus on reduction of debt, we shall be able to achieve substantial growth in the future," Kavita Shirvaikar, Director and CFO of Patel Engineering said.

The company's current order book stands at Rs 15,011 crore.

Earlier, Shirvaikar had said that the company is implementing hydroelectric power projects worth around Rs 6,000 crore in Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh.

The Mumbai-based engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm has a strong presence in tunnels and underground works for hydroelectric and dam projects.