India's United Breweries profit rises in Q1 on strong demand for premium beer

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's United Breweries reported a 27% rise in its first-quarter profit on Thursday, as sales of chilled beer spiked during summer.

The company's profit rose to 1.73 billion rupees ($20.7 million) in the April-June quarter compared with 1.36 billion rupees a year ago.

Sales volume rose 5% while revenue surged 11% to 58.09 billion rupees, led by a 44% growth in its premium segment, which includes the Kingfisher Ultra and Kingfisher Ultra Max brands, the company said.

KEY CONTEXT

India's alcohol and beverage industry has been seeing steady volume growth, specially in the premium category, driven by evolving lifestyles and higher disposable incomes.

Scorching summers have been a boon for beer sales while stable barley prices and easing bottling and packaging costs have boosted profitability.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation(nex Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment

t 12 months) months)

RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div

TDA growth growth rating* analysts price yield

target** (%)

United Breweries 71.02 45.35 13.59 53.13 Hold 12 1.03 0.50

Ltd

United Spirits Ltd 63.78 41.95 10.38 10.69 Buy 11 1.02 0.65

Radico Khaitan Ltd 53.22 31.51 17.42 44.45 Buy 5 0.92 0.17

Tilaknagar 27.32 19.68 -33.63 14.97 Strong 1 0.76 0.10

Industries Ltd Buy

* Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

APRIL-JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 83.7630 Indian rupees

(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)