India's Welspun Living posts Q2 profit surge on higher demand for home linens

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Welspun Living reported a multi-fold rise in its second-quarter profit on Wednesday, boosted by strong demand for its bed and bath linens.

The company's consolidated net profit rose to 1.97 billion rupees ($23.6 million) from 86.7 million rupees in the corresponding quarter a year ago, the home textile maker said in an exchange filing.

Rising demand among urban consumers and a reduction in inventory have helped profitability at home textile companies, analysts said. Meanwhile, freight charges correcting to pre-pandemic levels also helped the company's margins, Welspun said.

Margins on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) improved to 15.4% from 7.1% a year earlier.

Total expenses rose 7.6% during the quarter to 22.83 billion rupees, mainly due to a nearly 23% rise in raw material costs.

The company's revenue from operations rose nearly 19% to 25.09 billion rupees, led by a nearly 17% climb in its home textiles business.

Welspun Living generates over 90% of its revenue from the home textiles segment, which includes bed sheets, bath linen and curtains under its "Welspun" and "SPACES" labels.

The company's shares rose as much as 1.5% after the results before turning negative to trade down 3.2% at 123.75 rupees, as of 2:03 p.m. IST.

($1 = 83.1310 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Anisha Ajith and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)