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Informist, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025

 

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--Eternal Jul-Sept consol net profit INR 650 mln
--Analysts saw Eternal Jul-Sept consol net profit at INR 1.12 bln
--Eternal Jul-Sept consol revenue INR 135.90 bln
--Analysts saw Eternal Jul-Sept consol revenue at INR 87.57 bln
--Eternal Jul-Sept consol net profit INR 650 mln vs INR 1.76 bln year ago
--Eternal Jul-Sept consol revenue INR 135.90 bln vs INR 47.99 bln year ago
--Eternal Apr-Sept consol net profit INR 900 mln vs INR 4.29 bln year ago
--Eternal Apr-Sept consol revenue INR 207.57 bln vs INR 90.05 bln year ago
--Eternal Jul-Sept consol stock-in-trade spend INR 87.95 bln vs INR 13.69 bln
--Eternal Jul-Sept consol employee cost INR 8.65 bln vs INR 5.90 bln
--Eternal Jul-Sept consol depreciation INR 3.76 bln vs INR 1.80 bln
--Eternal Jul-Sept consol delivery charges INR 22.13 bln vs INR 13.98 bln
--Eternal: Q2 quick commerce losses INR 1.56 bln vs INR 1.62 bln loss qtr ago
--Eternal Jul-Sept food delivery net order value INR 94.23 bln, up 14% on yr
--Eternal Q2 quick commerce net order value INR 116.79 bln, up 137% on year
--Eternal Jul-Sept going-out ops net order value INR 20.63 bln, up 32% on yr
--Eternal Jul-Sept food delivery adjusted revenue INR 28.63 bln, up 22% YoY
--Eternal Jul-Sept consol adjusted EBITDA INR 2.24 bln vs INR 3.30 bln yr ago
--Eternal Q2 quick commerce revenue INR 98.91 bln, up 756% on year
--Eternal Jul-Sept like-for-like consol adjusted revenue up 65% on year
--Eternal Jul-Sept hyperpure revenue INR 10.23 bln, down 31% on year
--Eternal Jul-Sept going-out revenue INR 1.89 bln, up 23% YoY
--Eternal Q2 quick commerce EBITDA loss INR 1.6 bln vs INR 80 mln loss yr ago
--Eternal:Net added 272 quick commerce stores in Q2; total store count 1,816
--Eternal: 80% of net order value in Jul-Sept on own inventory model
--Eternal: Hyperpure revenue dn on shift to inventory ownership in quick comm
--Eternal: Q2 margin expansion in quick commerce lower than expected
--Eternal: Expect slow rise in food delivery net order value in near term
--Eternal: Expect to get 2,100 quick comm stores by Dec vs 2,000 seen earlier
--Eternal: Expect to get 3,000 quick commerce stores by March 2027
--Eternal: Share of low value orders in food delivery ops increased in Q2
--Eternal: Expect core restaurant ops to become profitable over next 2 qtrs
--Eternal: Saw negative impact of GST cuts on growth, margins in Jul-Sept

 

By Avishek Rakshit

 

KOLKATA – A change in the framework of its quick commerce platform Blinkit to an inventory-based model led Eternal Ltd. report its steepest fall in consolidated net profit during the September quarter which was way lower than the Steet's expectation. However, the food and grocery delivery company surpassed the Street's view on consolidated sales by a substantially wide margin.

 

The consolidated net profit of Eternal tanked over 63% on year in the September quarter to INR 650 million as against the Street's estimate of over INR 1 billion, but aggressive ordering on the platform, backed by a hike in platform fees, led the consolidated revenue increase around three times to INR 136 billion as against the Street's view of INR 87.6 billion.

 

However, the company's change in business model of the Blinkit business renders the overall financial performance incomparable with past quarters as 73% of the current consolidated sales have moved to a new operational model. This not only affects Eternal's profits and depreciation costs, but the shift to inventory-based model from the earlier commission-based model factors in the own cost of goods in the revenue which was not the case earlier.

 

In a letter to the shareholders, Eternal said that the consolidated net order value of its consumer business grew 57% on year and by 15% on quarter to INR 231.6 billion in the September quarter. The adjusted revenue grew 172% on year and 85% on quarter to nearly INR 140 billion. Citing that these growth figures are not comparable on account of a change in the Binkit's business model, Eternal said that the like-for-like adjusted revenue growth after deducting cost of goods sold in case of own inventory sales in quick commerce and excluding the revenue from Hyperpure's non-restaurant business, was 65% on year and 22% on quarter. 

 

In the food delivery business, which accounted for 18% of the consolidated sales in the September quarter, the net order value grew 14% on year, improving slightly from 13% on year growth in the June quarter. The adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation margin as a percentage of net order value reached an all-time high of 5.3% and the business delivered an absolute adjusted EBITDA of over INR 5 billion for the quarter, up from INR 4.5 billion in the year-ago quarter.

 

In the quick commerce business, which accounted for 73% of the total sales in the September quarter, the net order value accelerated to 137% on year--its highest in the last 10 quarters. Network expansion of this business continued with 272 net new stores added taking the total count to 1,816 stores as at the end of the quarter. The adjusted EBITDA margin as a percentage of net order value continued to improve sequentially to (-)1.3% in the September quarter from (-)1.8% in the year-ago quarter.

 

In the Hyperpure business--the company's business-to-business division, which accounted for 7.5% of the September quarter's consolidated revenues, the restaurant business continued to grow steadily at 42% on year with adjusted EBITDA margin improving to (-)0.9% from (-)2.2% in the year-ago period. Including the non-restaurant business, the total Hyperpure revenue declined 31% on year to over INR 10 billion. The decline was on account of the shift to inventory ownership in quick commerce which led to a scale down in Hyperpure's non-restaurant business in line with expectations, the company reasoned in the letter.

 

Owing to the change in the business model of the quick commerce business, Eternal's costs surged substantially. Purchase of stock-in-trade shot up nearly six times on year to around INR 88 billion as the company's now stocks saleable products on its own rather than act as a vendor which ferries the product from sellers to consumers and earn a commission. Employee benefits expense increased 47% on year to around INR 9 billion, and delivery charges rose 58% on year to INR 22 billion.

 

As a result of the change in the business framework, depreciation and amortisation expenses doubled to nearly INR 3.8 billion and finance costs increased by around three times to INR 860 million. Advertising expenses, too, went up by over 91% on year to over INR 8 billion.

 

In its letter to the shareholders, Eternal said that it added 272 quick commerce stores in the September quarter, taking the total store count to 1,816 and 80% of its net order value in Jul-Sept was on own inventory model. However, the margin expansion in quick commerce was lower than expected, Eternal said adding that it expects a slow rise in food delivery net order value in the near term. By December-end, the company is expecting to put up a total of 2,100 quick commerce stores as against its initial projection of 2,000; and by March 2027, the count may go up to 3,000 quick commerce stores.

 

The company said that the share of low value orders in food delivery operations increased in the September quarter and it expects the core restaurant operations to become profitable over next two quarter. The company also saw a negative impact of GST cuts on growth and margins in Jul-Sept.

 

During Apr-Sept, Eternal's consolidated net profit declined to INR 900 million from INR 4.3 billion in the year-ago period and revenue came in at INR 207.6 billion as against INR 90 billion in the year-ago quarter.

 

On Thursday, shares of Eternal closed 1.8% lower at INR 347.85 on the National Stock Exchange. End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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