GHCL Textiles: margins hit new high as PAT jumps 124% YoY despite ₹27 Cr fire exceptional

GHCL Textiles' standalone revenue for Q2 FY27 (quarter ended September 30, 2026) came in at ₹445.53 Cr, up 31.8% year-on-year from ₹338.04 Cr and up 8.95% sequentially from ₹408.94 Cr in Q1 FY27 — the company's second straight quarter of 30%+ YoY top-line growth after Q1's 52% print. Reported net profit rose 123.9% YoY to ₹35.84 Cr (from ₹16.01 Cr) but fell 8.9% QoQ from ₹39.35 Cr, the sequential dip entirely a function of a ₹26.78 Cr exceptional item — a fire-damage loss at the company's Tuticorin warehouse on August 1, 2026 — rather than any operating weakness. Basic EPS was ₹3.75 against ₹1.68 a year ago and ₹4.12 last quarter. Stripping out the fire loss, pre-exceptional PBT was ₹74.48 Cr (vs ₹47.70 Cr reported), and adjusted PAT works out to roughly ₹55.96 Cr — an adjusted YoY growth of ~250%, well above the 123.9% reported figure, since the one-off sits in this quarter rather than in the year-ago base. Margins tell the same story: operating margin expanded to ~20.5% of revenue from ~16.9% in Q1 FY27 and ~10.9% in Q2 FY26, as raw-material cost eased to about 61.6% of revenue from 69.2% a year ago even as volumes scaled. Reported net margin of 8.04% looks like a sequential compression from Q1's 9.61%, but on an adjusted basis net margin is closer to 12.6% — itself an expansion, not a slip. Both the growth and the margin print run ahead of what management flagged on the Q1 call: FY27 revenue growth was guided at ~14% (in line with FY26's pace), yet H1 FY27 revenue of ₹854.47 Cr is already up 41% YoY from ₹605.79 Cr — implying either a sharply assumed H2 slowdown against a tougher base, or a conservative full-year guide. Management had also called Q1's 17%-plus EBITDA margin "inflated by inventory gains" and pointed to a 14-15% normalized band; Q2's ~20.5% OPM is higher still, raising the question of when margins actually normalize lower. No GHCL Textiles-specific street estimates for this quarter turned up in search; results for "GHCL" largely belong to the separately listed parent, GHCL Ltd (chemicals/soda ash), which posted its own unrelated Q2 FY27 print (revenue ₹808 Cr, PAT ₹127 Cr) in the same window — the two should not be conflated. Corporate activity this quarter included board approval of an additional ₹415.25 Cr capital budget for a new 58,368-spindle spinning unit at Manaparai, continued progress on the PM MITRA Park project at Virudhunagar (₹31.05 Cr paid this quarter toward 56.12 acres of allotted land), and a CEO grant of 3 lakh stock options at ₹120.56/share under the new ESOS 2026 scheme — a non-cash, non-adjusting event with no bearing on this quarter's P&L. Heading into H2 FY27, the markers to watch are whether the insurance claim on the ₹26.78 Cr fire loss is recognized (lodged but pending insurer assessment as of September 30, 2026), whether OPM holds near 20% or reverts toward management's guided 14-15% normalized band, and whether revenue growth decelerates toward the ~14% full-year guide implied for the second half.