Indian Oil says decline in Q4 net profit majorly on account of inventory losses

Net profit of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) declined in the fourth quarter of financial year 2023-24 owing to inventory losses as compared to gains in the previous three months, the company said in a communication to Moneycontrol on May 3.

India’s biggest oil refiner on April 30 reported consolidated net profit of Rs 5,488 crore for the March quarter, a decline of 49 percent from the year-ago period. Meanwhile, the company’s net profit declined 40 percent sequentially.

“It is to be noted that decrease in net profit is majorly due to inventory losses in Q4 vs inventory gains in Q3. The normalised GRM of Q4 is almost at the same level as that of Q3 i.e. around $10/bbl,” said Indian Oil.

Shares of Indian Oil declined around 5 percent on BSE on the announcement of Q4 results. On May 3, shares of the company settled 1.47 percent lower than its previous close at Rs 170.80 per share.

Indian Oil further told Moneycontrol that its gross refining margin (GRM) was $8.39 per barrel in the March quarter which was almost at the same level as that of Q3 but 15 percent higher than Singapore GRM.

The oil marketing company said its EBITDA in the quarter was lower as it reported inventory losses in some of the products. In Q4, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 26 percent from the last quarter.

"IOCL’s SA adj. EBITDA missed estimates by 27% at Rs107.5 billion in Q4FY24, due to weaker refining on the back of inventory losses (~USD2.0/bbl vs. nil est.), as well as core GRM coming in at USD10.6/bbl vs. USD13.0 (Emkay est.). Marketing segment posted steady performance, despite Rs10.2bn negative LPG buffer with seemingly better core marketing margin (inv. loss not known) partly offset by higher opex," said Emkay in a note on April 4.