HFCL Limited has announced its audited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended March 31, 2024. The consolidated revenue for the reported year stood at Rs 44.65 billion, a decrease of 5.87 per cent from Rs 47.43 billion in the previous year. The company reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of Rs 6.82 billion as compared to Rs 6.66 billion in fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23), a year-on-year (YoY) rise of 2.44 per cent. The EBITDA margin rose to 15.28 per cent during FY24. Meanwhile, the consolidated profit after tax (PAT) for the company was Rs 3.38 billion.
On a standalone basis, the company reported revenue of Rs 40.75 billion, EBITDA of Rs 5.86 billion, profit before tax (PBT) of Rs 4.12 billion, and PAT of Rs 3.10 billion.
Further, for the fourth quarter (Q4) of FY24, the company posted revenue of Rs 13.26 billion, up 28.46 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) from Rs 10.32 billion during the previous quarter. EBITDA during Q4 was Rs 2.09 billion, a QoQ decline of 28.05 per cent from 1.63 in Q3 FY23. The company’s PAT for the reported quarter was Rs 1.09 billion, an increase of 32.67 per cent QoQ from Rs 824.3 million in Q3 FY24.
Commenting on the results, Mahendra Nahata, managing director, HFCL, said, “With government’s progressive policies India is poised to become the third-largest economy by 2027 due to its resilience and promising growth prospects, surpassing Japan, and Germany. At HFCL, with our multi-pronged approach centering around robust investments in research and development, backward integration, capacity expansion and expanding national and international presence, we have been able to significantly improve on revenue mix; product mix; customer mix and geographical presence ensuring sustainable growth. We conclude FY24 on a positive note and at HFCL, we are delighted to witness a meaningful shift in demand for our communication products, 5G and defense equipment. Our order book has increased to Rs 76.85 billion in FY24 as compared to Rs 70.10 billion in FY23, led by significant multi-million order wins from various reputed customers. HFCL continued its focus on increasing revenue from margin accretive products, expansion of capacities coupled with high-level vertical and horizontal integration in optical fibre cable (OFC), and huge impetus on research and development R&D.”
He further added, “FY 23-24 has witnessed slight decline in YoY revenue due to the softening in demand of OFC. This temporary decline is in line with the worldwide trend. It is attributed to inventory built-up with major operators, resulting in an overall reduction in revenue in absolute terms as well as lower sales realisation per kilometre of fibre. We are filled with optimism for the upcoming fiscal year, led by opportunities arising from OFC, BharatNet-III, 5G, Make in India in defence sector and key international markets including North America, Europe, UK, Middle East and Africa. While FY23 and FY24 were marked by significant investments in building products led by innovation, we believe HFCL is now ready to capitalise on its innovative 5G product portfolio, coupled with OFC and opportunities in network integration and defence sector. We have made a strategic move of setting up of OFC manufacturing plant in Poland to expand our presence in European market in line with our strategy of tapping new geographies and new customers. We are optimistic about outlook for demand of telecom equipment, and also on restoration of OFC demand from Q2 FY25 onwards both in India and key global markets. We are also confident that our continued efforts in designing and developing innovative and geography specific optical fiber cables for international markets, along with the introduction of new 5G telecom networking equipment and defence products, will yield even better results in coming quarters. These efforts are expected to provide impetus to both revenue growth and profitability along with the potential to increase our margins.”
