Jockey India licensee posts higher Q3 profit, helped by higher margins

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Page Industries, which licenses products of innerwear and loungewear brand Jockey in India, posted its first increase in profit in five quarters on Thursday, helped by higher margins.

The company, which manufactures and distributes sports and athleisure wear, said its profit rose 23% year-over-year to 1.52 billion rupees ($18.3 million) in the third quarter.

The Bengaluru-based company's revenue increased 2.4% to 12.29 billion rupees.

Its margins on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) expanded to 18.7% from 16.1% a year ago.

Page Industries's total expenses dropped 0.5%, mainly helped by lower cost of raw materials, especially cotton.

Earlier this week, rival Tata-owned Trent reported a more-than-two-fold jump in third-quarter profit, driven by robust demand during the festive period.

Shares of Page Industries closed up 1.3% after the results. ($1 = 82.9725 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Savio D'Souza)