Page Industries shares slipped over 11 percent in the morning trade on May 26, a day after the company posted a 59 percent year-on-year decline in net profit at Rs 78.4 crore in the March quarter of the financial year 2022-23. Sequentially net profit declined 37 percent from Rs 124 crore reported in the December quarter.

The company that manufactures and markets products under brands, Jockey and Speedo, clocked revenue from operations at Rs 969.09 crore, down 12.8 per cent in comparison to Rs 1,111.11 crore in the fourth quarter of FY22.

At the operating level, EBITDA showed a degrowth of 50 percent to Rs 134 crore in the fourth quarter of this fiscal over Rs 267 crore in the corresponding period of last year. The EBITDA margin fell to 13.9 percent in the reporting quarter against 24 percent a year-ago. EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation.

The financial performance suffered due to a challenging economic scenario and a general decrease in consumption.

The Bengaluru-headquartered Page Industries announced its fourth interim dividend of Rs 60 per equity share for FY23 and has fixed June 2 as the record date. In the last five years, the total dividend payout to investors was Rs 1,350 per share.

V.S. Ganesh, Managing Director, Page Industries, commented on the performance stating, "Although the company experienced some impact on profitability due to higher inventory levels acquired during an inflationary period and lower than optimal capacity utilisation, we taken several steps to address these issues."

At 10:36 am Page Industries' stock traded 11.44 percent lower at Rs 36,415 apiece on the NSE. The stock has given negative returns of 1.56 percent over a 12-month period, while it fell 2 percent on a year-to-date basis. It is trading at a 12-month trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 71.5x.

Volumes declined 14 percent YoY driven by subdued demand and mismatch in primary and secondary sales due to ARS implementation.