Driven by volume growth, Honasa’s quarterly revenue grew 21% YoY to Rs 496 crore while its Ebitda margin expanded 170 bps YoY to 8.1%, the highest ever.
The company’s management remains confident of delivering a 30% plus revenue growth going forward, similar to that in H1. It also expects Ebitda margins to keep improving on a YoY basis over the coming years, led by operating leverage and further optimisation of ad-spends.
“We upgrade our FY24-26e Ebitda and EPS by 5-6%. We value Honasa at 6x Sep-25 EV/Sales and increase price target slightly to Rs 530 vs Rs 520 earlier,” Jefferies analyst Vivek Maheshwari said.
Honasa chairman and CEO Varun Alagh said the business has grown by 33% YoY in H1 FY24 which is 3.8 times the median growth of FCMG companies in India.
“Mamaearth, our largest brand has entered the Top 15 BPC brands in India, overtaking many legacy brands, as per a report by Jefferies. Our profits grew much faster than our revenues, with H1 PAT growing by 1,377% to Rs 54 crore,” he said.
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While the exact split was not disclosed, growth was led by new brands, while Mamaearth also grew double-digits in H1. Within new brands, The Derma Co is now at an annual revenue run-rate (ARR) of Rs 380 crore and Aqualogica is at Rs 180 crore. Dr. Sheth became the fourth brand to cross Rs 150 crore ARR, growing 30x since acquisition. BBlunt’s product business has also grown 3x since its acquisition.”Management noted that Q2 had a high base as some revenue was shifted from Q1 to Q2 last year due to ERP implementation on June 22. H1 performance is hence a better indicator, wherein Honasa grew 33% YoY (36% LFL). Offline channel revenue was impacted more due to this ERP implementation,” Jefferies said.
The stock has been on a roller-coaster ride since listing on November 7. Against the initial public offering (IPO) issue price of Rs 324, the stock was listed at a 2% premium at Rs 330 and hit a high of Rs 340.45 on the intraday basis on the listing. The initial excitement fizzled out soon and the stock prices fell to as low as Rs 256 on BSE after 2 days.
The stock recovered only after Jefferies issued a report picking the stock as a high-conviction buy.
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