Pratibha Industries soars through the roof
Shares of Pratibha Industries are soaring high by 8.2% and currently ruling at Rs. 23.05 per share, on very strong volumes. Shares had touched a high of Rs. 24.40 on BSE an hour back. Company has bagged 2 orders aggregating Rs. 516 crore from Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) in Rajasthan for the Ajmer and Bharatpur districts for water supply scheme comprising design, build, operate and maintenance work, which will be executed over 3 years from commencement.
This order win is preceded by a continuous flow of orders in the previous months too. This infrastructure solutions provider was awarded Rs. 418 crore order for a cluster of villages under PHED, Ajmer in September, while in August this year, it bagged Rs. 231 crore order for some more villages in the same district. In July, the company had won Rs. 432 crore orders in Jaipur and Rs. 168 crore order in Noida. Thus, in the last 3 months alone, company won fresh orders worth over Rs. 1,750 crore, which is over 80% of its 12 month sales ended 31st March 2013.
Although the company has been reporting steady order wins which will help keep its order book healthy, its profitability has taken a beating on account of high debt. For Q1FY14, consolidated sales were Rs. 556 crore, but net profit was barely Rs. 17 lakh, as against consolidated FY13 revenue of Rs. 2,169 crore and net profit of Rs. 83 crore. Company had debt of over Rs. 1,400 crore, resulting in debt equity ratio of 2.2:1 on equity of Rs. 633 crore, as of 31st March 2013.
Hence, although the order wins are helping the company report robust topline, project delays and high debt is playing a spoilt-sport, leading to PE multiple of less than 3 times for the stock.