India's PC Jeweller reports narrower loss on festive demand

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's PC Jeweller Ltd on Tuesday posted a narrower loss for the third quarter, helped by strong demand for gold during the festival and wedding seasons.

Consolidated loss narrowed to 611.2 million rupees ($7.38 million) in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from a loss of 735.7 million rupees a year earlier.

The Delhi-based jeweller's consolidated revenue from operations rose 39.8% to 8.54 billion rupees. Gold prices fell nearly 4% year-over-year.

Compared with the previous quarter, however, gold prices rose 9.9%.

"Showrooms continue to operate, though level of operations has declined since the beginning of the quarter," the company said in an exchange filing.

The company had reported a profit in the preceding two quarters, breaking a streak of losses for nine straight quarters.

Total expenses in the third quarter climbed nearly 35% to 9.5 billion rupees, mainly as the cost of raw materials soared 79.6% to 7.4 billion rupees.

Gross margins of its domestic retail business fell to 8.79% from 10.5% a year earlier.

Rivals Kalyan Jewellers India Ltd and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri Ltd had also reported a rise in third-quarter profits, although Tata-owned Titan Co posted a surprise fall in profit.

PC Jeweller, embroiled in a legal battle with State Bank of India over the resolution of its non-performing assets, disclosed a week ago that IDBI Bank, Indian Bank, Bank of India and Karur Vysya Bank have issued loan recall notices to the company.

The company said on Tuesday it expects other banks in the consortium to also issue loan recall notices. But it is confident that it would be able to realize its assets and meet its liabilities and commitments in the normal course of business.

Shares of the company closed 5% lower at 30.3 rupees before the results.

($1 = 82.7720 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)