SpiceJet shares surge 7% on 6-fold jump in Q4 profit

Budget airline SpiceJet Ltd saw an early morning jump in its share price at 6.8% as the carrier recorded net profit in Q4 FY24. The shares of SpiceJet Ltd opened at ₹59 and hit the day's high at ₹60 on BSE. The scrip is trading 22.5% lower than the one-year high of ₹72 achieved on February 5, 2024.

At the current share price at 09.56 AM, the Gurugram-based airline's m-cap stands at ₹4,585.88 on the BSE. Shares of the no-frills airline saw about 86.32% jump in the past year, while in the calendar year they fell 5.26%.

SpiceJet Ltd., which released its Q3 and Q4 FY24 numbers after a gap of several months, reported net profit at ₹119 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2024, compared to ₹17 crore in the same period last year. The company's revenue for the quarter under revenue dipped 20% to ₹1,719.37 crore against ₹2,144.85 crore a year ago.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, SpiceJet reduced its losses by nearly 73%, reporting a post-tax loss of ₹409 crore compared to a net loss of ₹1,503.15 crore in FY2023. However, its revenue dipped about 20% year-on-year to ₹7,050 crore in 2023-24 vs ₹8,868 crore in FY23. In Q3 FY24, SpiceJet reported ₹301.4 crore net loss, while the total income stood at ₹2,148.6 crore, down 461.4% from ₹9,914.8 crore a year ago.

In January this year, SpiceJet received in-principle approval from BSE for a fund infusion of ₹2,242 crore and raised ₹1,060 crore under preferential issues in two tranches. "The results reflect our relentless efforts to enhance operational efficiency and our commitment to turning around the company's fortunes,” said Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet.

“We are exploring opportunities to raise fresh funds to further bolster our growth plans and take advantage of the burgeoning demand in the Indian aviation market."

SpiceJet, in its filing to exchanges, says the Group continues to implement various measures such as return to service of its grounded fleet, enhancing customer experience, improving selling and distribution, revenue management, fleet rationalisation, optimising aircraft utilisation, redeployment of capacity in key focus markets, management and employee compensation revision, renegotiation of contracts and other costs control measures, to help it establish consistently profitable operations and cash flows in the future.

However, these initiatives are heavily dependent upon its ability to raise funds. During the year ended 31 March 2024, the group received funds worth ₹991 crore under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (‘ECLGS’) scheme. It issued fresh equity shares and warrants to the promoter group for a value worth ₹494 crore. The group also issued fresh equity shares and equity warrants on a preferential basis to various investors under the non-promoter category worth ₹1,060 crore.