Shares of Greenlam Industries Ltd jumped over 13% in afternoon trade on May 29 after the laminates and decorative veneers maker reported a 109.59% year-on-year rise in net profit at Rs 54.32 crore for Q3FY23.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 259.2 crore in the same period last year.

The improvement in margins was largely due to a significant reduction in the company’s ocean freight costs, which are now below pre-pandemic levels in most regions.

In the March quarter, total revenue stood at Rs 489.14 crore, an increase of 15.64% from Rs 423.01 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.

On an operational level, EBITDA grew by 49.5% YoY to Rs 74.06 crore. The profit margin improved to 13.9% from 10.7% a year earlier.

Laminate segment revenue rose 16% to Rs 491.6 crore while veneer segment revenue rose 6.8% to Rs 42.17 crore. However, the EBITDA loss in the veneer business narrowed to Rs 1.08 crore from Rs 4.35 crore in the previous year.

Greenlam Industries expects 20-25% growth for the current fiscal year as new capacity comes online.

The greenfield laminate project in Andhra Pradesh is expected to start commercial production in the second quarter of 2023-24, while the particleboard project in the state should start commercial production in the fourth quarter.

In March 2023, Greenlam’s earnings per share (EPS) increased to Rs 4.25 in March 2023 from Rs 2.15 in March 2022. The stock has lost 4.55% over the past six months and is down 1.17% over the past year.

The stock traded 12% higher at Rs 351.80 at 2:29 pm on the National Stock Exchange.