Indian corporates made a full comeback with $111 billion profits, but the same can’t be said for 2023

• The corporate sector in India has made a full comeback in the fiscal year 2022, a report by Bank of Baroda noted.
• The report analyzed the performance of 2,108 companies, both financial and non-financial entities to come to the conclusion.
• Bank of Baroda revealed that net sales of these corporations grew by ₹18 lakh crore and the net profit by ₹3 lakh crore in FY2022.

The corporate sector in India has made a ‘full comeback’ in the fiscal year 2022 as their profit touched ₹8.6 lakh crore ($111 billion), as per a report by Bank of Baroda. But the momentum might not last and a similar performance cannot be expected in FY2023, even though the country has overcome the worst of the pandemic.

The report noted that the Russia and Ukraine war has raised new challenges for Indian corporates in the form of high inflation, leading to a higher interest-rate regime.

The report analyzed the performance of 2,108 companies, both financial and non-financial entities to come to the conclusion.

How did India’s corporates perform in FY2022?

The Bank of Baroda report revealed that net sales of 2,108 corporates in India grew by ₹18 lakh crore ($232 billion) to ₹84 lakh crore or $1 trillion.

The cumulative net profit grew by ₹3 lakh crore in the fiscal year that ended in March this year. The report also emphasised that the profit growth was also high in the fiscal year as companies managed to reduce their employee cost through layoffs, pay-cuts or the combination of the two.

That, coupled with demand increase aided the growth. “Further post-lockdown, the third and fourth quarters did witness some pent up demand which helped certain sectors,” the report added.
Source: Bank of Baroda Research

“In general the low base effect of FY20 and FY21 has provided an upward thrust for virtually all industries. There has hence been an improvement in sales and profits across all segments. One way of separating the performers is to short-list those which have witnessed higher than sample average growth in both net sales and net profit,” Bank of Baroda noted.

Source: Bank of Baroda Research

The performance is much better if BFSI are out of the picture

The corporate performance could have been better if the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sectors were excluded. “This is because the base effect was sharper as the BFSI sector performed well in FY21 since it was relatively less affected by the lockdown,” Bank of Baroda said.

The net sales of these 1,789 corporates — excluding BFSI — grew by over 35% even though the amount stayed consistent at around ₹18 lakh crore too. The net profit of these non-finance corporates grew by 65%. In comparison, the net sales of 2108 corporations had grown by 27.5% and net profit by 57% in FY2022.
Source: Bank of Baroda Research