Feb 2 (Reuters) — Engineering firm Honeywell Automation India reported a 8.3% fall in third-quarter profit on Monday, as higher expenses more than offset the impact of stronger manufacturing activity.
The firm, the Indian arm of U.S. conglomerate Honeywell International, offers integrated automation and control services for multiple industries such as oil and gas, infrastructure, and transportation.
India’s clean‑energy incentives and industrial upgrade efforts supported new order inflows, while existing orders helped revenues, with revenue from operations rising about 7% to 11.69 billion rupees ($127.8 million) in the three months ended December.
However, the firm’s total expenses jumped 7.6% to 10.38 billion rupees on the back of a 16.8% rise in employee benefit expense. As a result, profit declined 8.3% year-on-year to 1.21 billion rupees.
The income was also hit by a one-time charge of 114 million rupees tied to India’s newly enacted labour codes, the company said. Profit, excluding the one-time charge and tax expenses, stood flat at 1.76 billion rupees.
Honeywell Automation India’s stock, one of the country’s most expensive, closed 2% higher to 33,610 rupees, ahead of the results.
The firm’s parent company reported a profit beat in the October-December quarter on strong aerospace demand.
($1 = 91.4820 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkataraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)