BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian tobacco-to-hotels conglomerate ITC missed first quarter profit estimates on Thursday, as higher expenses and challenges at its paperboards and packaging business hurt margins.
Demand in ITC’s paperboards, paper and packaging business, which makes up roughly a tenth of its revenue, has fallen in recent quarters due to competition with cheaper Chinese products, squeezing its overall sales and earnings.
The Sunfeast biscuits maker posted a profit of 49.17 billion rupees ($587.4 million) for the first quarter ended June 30, from 49.02 billion rupees a year earlier.
Analysts, on average, had projected 51.62 billion rupees, according to data from LSEG.
Revenue from operations for the company increased 7.2% to 182.20 billion rupees, mainly helped by growth in its cigarettes segment, even as its paperboards, paper and packaging business declined nearly 7%.
Total expenses rose nearly 11%.
($1 = 83.7060 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai and Ashna Teresa Britto in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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