IRCTC revenue jumps by 250% in first quarter of this fiscal
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) released the results for the first quarter ending June 30. The ticketing, catering and tourism wing of the Indian Railways reported its revenues increased by 250 per cent year-over-year to ₹852.6 crores on account of higher than expected catering revenue. The company has said that 11.58 crore tickets were booked online resulting in the convenience fee income of ₹210 crore in the first quarter of the financial year. IRCTC said that the catering segment delivered a steady performance and aimed to achieve ₹1,500 crores in the financial year end. The Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation (EBITDA) increased at 187.8 per cent year-over-year to ₹320 crore with a margin of nearly 38 per cent as against 45.8 per cent in the same quarter in the last fiscal. The company said that the tourism segment achieved a breakeven of EBIT for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic with a margin of 1.1 per cent. Some of the key highlights of IRCTC’s quarterly results include:-1. The ticketing share of 2S (non-AC chair car) has declined from 38 per cent to 26.9 per cent.2. The IRCTC reported that the revenue/perform, achieve and trade of Tejas Express stood at ₹41 crore/5 crore respectively. 3. The iPAY revenue was ₹27 crore of which IRCTC’s share is ₹10.7 crore.4. The bus ticketing revenue was Rs4.51 crore of which IRCTC’s commission and convenience fee stood at ₹32 lakh. The current market price of IRCTC is ₹670 per share while the target price is at ₹635 per share. Jinesh Joshi, research analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt Limited, a financial services company, advises holding the shares at present. “IRCTC trades at 58x/53x our FY23E/FY24E earning per share estimates and we believe current valuations capture strong growth prospects (25% EPS CAGR over FY22-FY24E) leaving marginal room for earnings surprise. Further, earnings CAGR over 5 years post FY23 (which captures benefits of catering & rail neer expansion) stands at 6% due to absence of meaningful growth levers rendering valuations pricey,” Joshi added.
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