Trent surges 8%, hits record high on hopes of strong earnings

Shares of Trent hit an all-time high of Rs 1,262.80, on rallying 8 per cent on the BSE in Thursday’s intra-day trade amid expectations of strong earnings backed by robust recovery in revenue. The stock of Tata Group company surpassed its previous high of Rs 1,211.95 touched on January 19, 2022.

Trent operates Westside, one of India’s leading chains of fashion retail stores, Trent Hypermarket which operates in the competitive food, grocery and daily needs segment under the Star banner, Landmark Stores, a family entertainment format store & Zudio which is a one shop destination to get fashion at great value.

In the past one month, the stock has outperformed the market by surging 19 per cent after the company reported 87 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 140 crore in December 2021 quarter (Q3FY22). In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.59 per cent during the same period. The company’s revenues jumped 87 per cent to Rs 1,613 crore on YoY basis.

The consumer sentiment continued to recover in Q3 on the back of the maturing vaccination drive, further relaxation of pandemic related restrictions and the festive season.

Westside registered revenues of over Rs 1,000 crore for the quarter with like-for-like (LFL) growth of 9 per cent and 49 per cent vis-à-vis FY20 (pre-covid) and FY21 respectively.

The management while announcing Q3 results on February 10, 2022 said Westside witnessed robust traction online with over 5 per cent of revenues coming from online channels in the nine month even as stores recovered fully.

While the Omicron wave impacted sales in January, it was mitigated in part by the strong online traction for Westside and the recovery in the last fortnight has been encouraging. Given the milder playout of the Omicron wave and the mature vaccination drive, the management believes the company is moving on to the next phase of recovery and growth.

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