ITC: Meme-ing its way to the top

If you had told someone a year ago that ITC will go up 49 per cent in the next 12 months and increase its revenue and profits by more than 15 per cent in FY22, they would have laughed at you. And now, when the market is falling, ITC investors are a happy lot. What resulted in such a performance? Strong growth in all of its business segments ITC witnessed strong growth in its cigarettes segment after facing a hiccup in FY21 and has posted a minimum of 10 per cent YoY (year-over-year) growth in the last five quarters. ITC also posted its best ever yearly revenue from this segment at Rs 23,451 crore (on a standalone basis) since FY17 when it posted a revenue of Rs 34,002 crore. This combined with the tobacco tax being untouched in this year's budget was a major boost. Its hotel business, which saw a massive 66 per cent f