Eternal Q1 Results: Blinkit operating profit crosses ₹100 crore, Food delivery NOV up 20%

Eternal Ltd., parent company of food delivery operator Zomato and quick commerce platform Blinkit, reported results for the June quarter, which were slightly lower in comparison to a CNBC-TV18 poll, but higher compared to last year. The company's cash balance also grew for the third straight quarter.

Revenue for the quarter stood at ₹20,211 crore, higher than the CNBC-TV18 poll of ₹19,850 crore. On a year-on-year basis, revenue grew by 17% from last year.

Net profit for the quarter nearly halved to ₹92 crore from ₹174 crore last year. The figure was lower than the CNBC-TV18 poll of ₹335 crore.

Eternal's Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 22% year-on-year to ₹594 crore, which was lower than the CNBC-TV18 poll of ₹670 crore. EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 2.9% from 2.8% last year, but lower than the CNBC-TV18 poll of 3.4%.

Eternal's cash balance has grown for the second straight quarter to ₹18,288 crore, higher than the ₹17,972 crore in March and ₹17,820 crore in December.

How Did Eternal's Business Segments Fare during the quarter?

Eternal's Food Delivery business, popularly known as Zomato, saw its Net Order Value (NOV) grow by 20% on a year-on-year basis to ₹10,769 crore. This is at the higher end of the expected 18% to 20% growth range from the street.

The company's Quick Commerce business, Blinkit, saw its NOV grow by 86% on a year-on-year basis to ₹17,132 crore. This was also higher than the expected 80% to 85% growth compared to last year.

Blinkit also added 200 net new dark stores during the quarter, taking the total count to 2,443.

Blinkit also continued to remain EBITDA positive for the third quarter in a row, with a ₹102 crore figure at the end of the June quarter. This was in comparison to the ₹37 crore figure reported in the March quarter and the EBITDA loss of ₹162 crore reported in the same quarter last year.

District saw its net loss narrow during the quarter to ₹65 crore from ₹81 crore that it reported during the March quarter.

In its letter to the shareholders, Eternal's management said that it expects the Quick Commerce NOV growth to remain robust going forward as well and that they are not seeing any visible impact on fuel and Raw Material price inflation on the business.

On the competition front, the management said that while the competition intensity remains high, it has now become more predictable.

Shares of Eternal fell as much as 3.6% after the results announcement but recovered the losses soon after. The stock is now trading 0.7% higher at ₹287.7. The stock has risen 9% so far over the last one month.