Gillette India, in which consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble Co holds a majority stake, reported a profit of 1.04 billion rupees ($12.5 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with 744.5 million rupees a year earlier.

Its revenue from operations rose 3.4% for the quarter.

Gillette India also declared an interim dividend of 85 rupees per share for the financial year 2023-24, which includes a one-time special dividend of 40 rupees per share.

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KEY CONTEXT

Gillette is capitalising on the changing consumer preferences in India in recent years, as a significant number of consumers, particularly the rising middle-class, favour branded products over unbranded local alternatives.

The surge in the company's second-quarter profit follows a single-digit growth in the previous quarter.

Rival Colgate-Palmolive (India) reported a 35.7% jump in the December-quarter profit, aided by healthy urban demand and a fall in expenses.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment

12 months) months)

RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div

growth growth rating* analysts price yield

target** (%)

Gillette India Ltd 50.29 31.76 11.21 17.20 Strong 1 0.88 1.31

Buy

Colgate-Palmolive 50.07 34.05 8.09 10.97 Hold 28 1.10 1.70

(India) Ltd

Hindustan Unilever 50.90 35.33 6.80 9.37 Buy 19 0.89 1.64

Ltd

Marico Ltd 41.20 29.39 8.49 10.06 Buy 38 0.88 0.87

* Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

OCTOBER-DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 83.1217 Indian rupees

(Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Mrigank Dhaniwala)