ITC adds Century Pulp, making paper results incomparable

ITC Limited completed its acquisition of Century Pulp and Paper on 1 August 2026, after which ITC reported Rs 3,015.85 crore of Paperboards, Paper & Packaging revenue for the quarter ended 30 September 2026. ITC says the acquired business has been consolidated from that date, making comparisons with earlier periods not comparable.

What did ITC acquire from Aditya Birla Real Estate?

ITC acquired the pulp and paper business of Aditya Birla Real Estate Limited, operated as Century Pulp and Paper, as a going concern through a slump sale completed on 1 August 2026. The business transfer included assets, liabilities, contracts and employees under the Business Transfer Agreement dated 31 March 2025.

ITC has provisionally determined and recorded the fair value of the acquired assets and liabilities under Indian Accounting Standard 103, or Ind AS 103, Business Combinations, as at 30 September 2026. The filing does not disclose the purchase consideration or a separate balance-sheet allocation for Century Pulp and Paper.

The transaction was completed during the quarter ended 30 September 2026 rather than on the first day of the six-month reporting period. Consequently, the paper segment’s Rs 5,323.09 crore revenue for the six months ended 30 September 2026 includes Century Pulp and Paper from 1 August, while the quarter ended 30 June 2026 did not include it.

Why are ITC’s paper-segment comparisons not comparable?

ITC says its company results and Paperboards, Paper & Packaging results include Century Pulp and Paper from 1 August 2026 and are consequently not comparable with previous periods. The acquired operation was absent from the September 2025 quarter and the June 2026 quarter, affecting reported revenue, segment result, assets and liabilities.

Paperboards, Paper & Packaging revenue was Rs 3,015.85 crore in the quarter ended 30 September 2026, compared with Rs 2,219.92 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2025 and Rs 2,307.24 crore in the preceding quarter ended 30 June 2026. ITC does not disclose the acquired business’s standalone revenue or profit, so the reported increases cannot be separated between Century Pulp and Paper and the pre-existing operations.

The provisional fair-value exercise is a further limitation on interpretation at 30 September 2026. ITC has stated that it recorded the acquired assets and liabilities provisionally under Ind AS 103, without identifying a separate contribution from the acquired unit to the Rs 281.93 crore quarterly segment result.

How did ITC’s paper segment change in the September quarter?

ITC’s Paperboards, Paper & Packaging segment reported a Rs 281.93 crore result for the September 2026 quarter, compared with Rs 191.01 crore in the September 2025 quarter and Rs 224.22 crore in the June 2026 quarter. The higher reported result coincided with the consolidation of Century Pulp and Paper from 1 August 2026.

For the six months ended 30 September 2026, the segment recorded Rs 5,323.09 crore of revenue and a Rs 506.15 crore result. In the corresponding six months of 2025, revenue was Rs 4,335.68 crore and the segment result was Rs 353.63 crore, but ITC’s note says consolidation from August 2026 prevents a like-for-like comparison.

The segment asset base was Rs 14,026.51 crore at 30 September 2026, compared with Rs 9,781.88 crore at 31 March 2026. Segment liabilities were Rs 2,288.11 crore at 30 September 2026, against Rs 1,381.15 crore at 31 March 2026; ITC says the acquired business brought assets and liabilities into the segment from 1 August.

What acquisition-related cost did ITC report?

ITC reported Rs 25.66 crore of exceptional expenses in the quarter and six months ended 30 September 2026 relating to the Century Pulp and Paper acquisition. The standalone results present this charge outside the segment results in the reconciliation to profit before tax.

Standalone profit before tax was Rs 5,481.75 crore in the September 2026 quarter, compared with Rs 6,847.35 crore in the September 2025 quarter, while profit for the period was Rs 4,137.12 crore versus Rs 5,175.70 crore. ITC does not attribute the overall year-on-year movement in profit to the acquisition, and identifies only Rs 25.66 crore as the acquisition-related exceptional expense.

Standalone gross revenue from products and services was Rs 28,152.21 crore in the September 2026 quarter, up from Rs 19,207.82 crore a year earlier. However, ITC says the increase in goods and services tax and central excise duty on cigarettes effective 1 February 2026 means gross revenue and excise-duty figures are not strictly comparable with previous periods.

What has ITC said about Century Pulp and Paper integration?

ITC has disclosed the transfer of Century Pulp and Paper’s assets, liabilities, contracts and employees on 1 August 2026, but has not provided an integration timetable, synergy estimate or target. Its 30 September 2026 filing confirms inclusion in company and Paperboards, Paper & Packaging reporting from the completion date.

The unresolved accounting matter is the provisional fair-value determination under Ind AS 103 at 30 September 2026. ITC did not disclose a standalone revenue, profit, asset or liability breakdown for Century Pulp and Paper, leaving the contribution of the two months from 1 August to 30 September unquantified.

Conclusion

ITC’s acquisition increased the reported scale of Paperboards, Paper & Packaging in the September 2026 quarter, when segment revenue reached Rs 3,015.85 crore and segment result reached Rs 281.93 crore. Assets of Rs 14,026.51 crore and liabilities of Rs 2,288.11 crore also show the wider reporting perimeter, but the filing does not isolate the acquired business’s contribution.

The next disclosures to watch are any finalisation of the provisional Ind AS 103 fair-value assessment and subsequent segment reporting with a longer period of consolidation than the two months included after 1 August 2026. ITC has not stated a timetable for the valuation finalisation or an integration target in the filing.