Titan Shares Surge 4% After Company Gives Q4 Business Update

In a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, Titan Company Ltd provided a business update on the fourth quarter of FY20 and said that it expects a significant fall in revenue due to disruption in operations from the coronavirus pandemic.

The consumer goods maker said that while the quarter commenced well with the growth "largely in line with targets" its "sales started dipping sharply in March particularly in the Watches segment" after WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic and shopping malls in some states were ordered to be closed in early March.

Shares of Titan Company rose 4% on Thursday to Rs 952.25 on BSE.

"For the safety of the employees, the Company adopted work from home policy across all its offices starting from 17th March. All stores were closed on the 22nd March in deference to the exhortation of the Prime Minister and continue to remain closed post the nation-wide lockdown announced by the Prime Minister from midnight of 24th March," the company said.

"Consequent to the serious disruptions in operations in March, revenue growth for the quarter and consequently for the year has been impacted severely. The company is working out its strategy to manage this crisis with particular focus on ensuring adequate liquidity is available till normalcy returns. Cost will be another major focus area for the company in these trying times," the statement said.

Revenue for the jewellery division declined by 5 percent in March while revenue growth in January and February was about 16.5 percent. "The diamond studded activation in the quarter did well and wedding jewellery sales continued to be good till the disruption," it said.

The Watches & Wearables division grew by 1 percent "despite the significant loss of sales in the month of March" with e-commerce being the fastest-growing channel for both Q4 and the full year 2019-20.

Growth in "eye wear" division was hurt "primarily due to decline in trade channel" but the disruption in March added to it to cause a 20 percent decline in revenues for the quarter. Growth for the previous two months was flat.