Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's Rs 7,600 crore bet paying off as Titan's growth phase kicks in

NEW DELHI: Seasoned investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's biggest stock bet Titan Company saw its shares climbing 3 per cent in Wednesday's trade after the Tata Group firm said its jewellery division "has crossed the recovery phase to growth phase", while suggesting that the other two large divisions have also moved much closer to full recovery.

The jewellery division registered a growth of 15 per cent in the December quarter, Titan said, with watches division seeing a recovery rate of 88 per cent and eyewear division 92 per cent on YoY basis.

Jhunjhunwala owns 33 stocks worth Rs 16,200 crore. His bet on Titan Company alone is worth Rs 7,697.80 crore as of today, as per publicly available data with Trendlyne.

The scrip rose 3.32 per cent to hit a high of Rs 1,620.95 on Wednesday. It has rallied 125 per cent from its 52-week-low of Rs 720 hit in March last year, lifting Jhunjhunwala's portfolio value to a record high in the beginning of 2021.

Jhunjhunwala and his better half held 5.52 per cent stake in the jeweller as of September 30th.

Titan said that the jewellery industry saw a resurgence in the festive season, along with pent-up demand for wedding jewellery, as most of the weddings in the first half of the year were deferred.

The company, which had announced 15 per cent growth in the 30-day festive period from Dussehra to Diwali, said that the growth trend was visible even after the festive season ended as the division recorded close to 15 per cent growth in the third quarter. The growth excludes the sale of raw gold of Rs 334 crore.

"The quarter also witnessed a well-rounded recovery with improvement in walk-ins and pick up of sale in metros, sub Rs 1-lakh category and studded segment. The studded mix in Q3 improved though still lower than levels seen in the previous year. The division continued to see a significantly higher share of gold coin sales and very good growth in wedding jewellery sales," it said.

The ticket size for the division continued to be higher due to higher gold rates and higher share of wedding-related products but 100 per cent recovery in buyers or number of invoices is yet to be seen.

In the case of watches & wearables segment, the division had a recovery rate of around 88 per cent in Q3, compared to the revenue of the same quarter last year.

The e-commerce channel reported an absolute growth of over 30 per cent.

"The festive period saw a surge in footfall in the shopping zones and the recovery rate improved in metros in Q3. The recovery rate for all the retail channels had been steadily increasing month on month primarily due to higher consumer walk-ins and also complemented by the selling of multiple products/ higher ticket size products in a single invoice," Titan said.

The omni-channel capability, it said has been scaled up to 80 per cent of 'World of Titan' and Fastrack stores.

During the quarter, Titan launched its latest line of smart watches, TRAQ, meant for outdoor sports. The early reviews for the watch have been very encouraging, the company said. It also launched two premium collections -- Titan Grandmaster for gents and 'Raga Moments of Joy' for women. Both the collections were aimed at further strengthening offerings in the above Rs 10,000 price band.

Besides, Fastrack launched 4 major collections. In the year so far, the watches & wearables division added 6 Helios store and closed 14 Fastrack stores, on a net basis, reducing 7,000 square feet of retail space.

The third segment, eye wear, saw a recovery rate of 92 per cent in the December quarter.

"To address the eyestrain problem resulting from increased screen time, spectacles were launched with anti-reflective and blue-light filters at starting price of INR 999 for kids and adults, under 'Dash' and 'Fastrack' brands respectively," Titan said.

Titan said that a range of spectacles (frames + lenses) under the 'Titan Ace' and Fastrack brands were launched at an attractive price point of Rs 999 onwards for value conscious customers.

Eco lite' stores requiring lower investment and improving the profitability of the franchisees were introduced during the quarter, it said.

Meanwhile, other businesses had a revenue recovery of around 80 per cent, compared to the revenue of the same quarter in last year. The recovery rate for fragrances and accessories continued to be muted due to the slow recovery of two of the biggest channels.