JK Paper: consol PAT +35% YoY to ₹103 Cr on margin gains, -24% QoQ off Q1 peak

JK Paper's consolidated (primary basis) revenue for Q2 FY27 came in at ₹1,939.04 Cr, up 11.95% YoY against the restated year-ago base of ₹1,732.09 Cr, and up a modest 2.75% QoQ from ₹1,887.17 Cr in Q1 FY27. Net profit for the period (post non-controlling interest and share of associate/JV) was ₹103.04 Cr, up 34.75% YoY from the restated ₹76.47 Cr base — on the pre-restatement comparator of ₹77.88 Cr the growth works out closer to +32.3% — but down 24.38% QoQ from Q1 FY27's ₹136.27 Cr. Basic EPS was ₹5.59 against ₹4.07 restated a year ago and ₹7.18 in the preceding quarter. Standalone PAT, the secondary basis, was ₹84.23 Cr, up 24.74% YoY and down 25.52% QoQ, tracking the same directional pattern as consolidated.

The YoY improvement is a margin story rather than a volume one: consolidated OPM (EBITDA/revenue) rose to 15.52% from 13.82% a year ago as cost of materials consumed grew just 1.7% YoY (₹1,144.71 Cr vs ₹1,125.09 Cr) against 11.95% revenue growth — the company's own filing note attributes this to "better product mix." NPM similarly expanded to 5.31% from 4.42% YoY. Sequentially, though, margins cooled: OPM fell from 17.01% in Q1 FY27 and NPM from 7.22%, driven by a 28.4% QoQ jump in power, fuel & water costs (₹166.39 Cr vs ₹129.59 Cr) and a 34.9% QoQ rise in finance costs (₹53.70 Cr vs ₹39.81 Cr) — the latter likely tied to the debt-funded buyout of the remaining 20% stake in Radheshyam Wellpack (RWPL) for ₹44.02 Cr completed this quarter, making RWPL a wholly owned subsidiary (consolidated cash flow shows ₹56.88 Cr spent on acquisition of subsidiary shares). Segment data corroborates the sequential softness: Paper & Packaging segment PBIT margin eased to 9.30% of segment revenue (₹176.04 Cr / ₹1,893.42 Cr) from 9.84% in Q1 FY27.

The stock went into the print at ₹381.05, down 3.2% over the past month of trading.

For context: this is the second-highest quarterly PAT of the last 6 quarters.

No verified Street consensus estimate for this specific quarter turned up in a search of brokerage previews, so no beat/miss call can be made against external forecasts. Management has also issued no formal guidance or outlook on record for this quarter — the context carries none and the web search found no company-stated targets — so this print stands on its own trend read rather than against a bar the company set. No exceptional items featured in either the current or the restated year-ago quarter, so the YoY growth figures above are already on a clean, like-for-like basis.