IRCTC posts highest ever quarterly Operating Profit and PAT

Volumes in internet ticketing witnesses a good surge.

IRCTC, the ticketing and catering arm of Indian railways posted strong performance for the quarter ended on December 31, 2021. Revenue from operation stood at Rs 540.21 crore which was up by 140% for the same period last year and 33% up on a sequential basis.

 Though the steep surge in quarterly numbers on a YoY basis may be accounted for the low base of last year, the company also managed to post the highest ever operating profit of Rs 295 crore as compared to Rs 115 crore for the same period last year and Rs 284 crore for the same period 2 years ago. Notably, the quarter ended December 2019 marked the best quarterly performance by the company in revenue terms.

The operating margins improved at 54.69% compared to 51.47% on YoY basis but declined from 56.21 per cent on a sequential basis.

Profit after tax jumped 167% on a YoY basis and stood at Rs 208.81 crore. On a sequential basis, net profit after tax rose 32 per cent from Rs 158 crore clocked in the September quarter and was marginally up from Rs 205.80 from pre-pandemic levels.

On analysing the segmental contribution to revenue and margins on comparison with pre-pandemic levels, revenue and the corresponding margins shrunk for catering and Rail Neer which constituted 19% and 9% of the revenue from operations. The revenue from internet ticketing which constitutes 58% of the revenue showed a significant jump from the pre-pandemic levels of Rs 22690 crore to Rs 31286 crore. Internet ticketing operates at a steep margin of 85%.

Average daily ticketing volumes are currently 40% higher than pre-pandemic levels which is largely attributable to conversion of all unreserved coaches to 2S class (which requires reservation) during the pandemic which contributed 40 per cent of the volumes.

On Tuesday, IRCTC shares rose 0.29% to close at Rs 838.10 apiece on BSE in anticipation of good quarterly numbers declared after-market hours. Today, the stock is up by 1.39% at Rs 849.75 apiece at 1.00 pm.

Also read: IRCTC Q3 profit more than doubles on low base, train ops revival