BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Smirnoff vodka maker United Spirits reported a bigger-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter profit on Friday, aided by strong demand for its premium alcohol brands.

The company's profit rose over 88% to 3.84 billion rupees (around $46 million) in the March quarter, beating analysts' expected profit of 2.48 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.

Revenue from operations grew nearly 11% to 63.94 billion rupees.

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KEY CONTEXT

India's alcohol and beverage makers have benefited from more consumers buying premium liquor brands, bumping up the revenue for such companies.

United Spirits' biggest segment, "Prestige and Above," reported growth of 6.6% to 23.1 billion rupees during the quarter, with steady demand for its Black Dog and Johnnie Walker brands.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment

months) months)

RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div

growth growth rating* analyst price yield

s target** (%)

United Spirits 58.09 37.40 13.26 15.73 Hold 13 1.02 -

United Breweries 70.71 44.28 14.97 59.03 Hold 12 0.98 0.40

Radico Khaitan 51.90 31.00 18.70 46.37 Buy 5 0.94 0.18

Tilaknagar 26.40 19.45 -40.34 - Strong 1 0.73 0.11

Industries Buy

JANUARY TO MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 83.1063 Indian rupees

(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto in Bengaluru, Additional reporting by Manvi Pant; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar)