Astral Poly
This company has literally risen like a phoenix from the ashes. From being almost on the verge of bankruptcy in 2003, re-building brick-by-brick, the company has today risen to become India’s largest plumbing and drainage pipe maker. But this Q3, a sharp dip in price for PVC pipes, around 23% in three months, due to falling crude prices took its toll on the bottomline of the company. It ended Q3FY15 with a 48% (YoY) drop in net profit a Rs.11 crore on a 6% rise in net sales at Rs.303 crore. Lower realisations plus higher costs – operating costs rose 21% dragged down the EBITDA by 27% at Rs.29 crore and margins fell from 13.96% to 9.57%. Company also had an exceptional loss of Rs.3 crore on forex, which is thankfully lower than loss of Rs.7 crore in previous Q3. Interest cost too has risen from Rs.2 crore to Rs.5 crore.
Its equity as at 30th June 2014 stood at Rs.11.24 crore and reserves stood at Rs.302 crore. EPS for the quarter is at Rs.3.64 (Fv at Rs.2/share). Promoter holding in the company is at 63.82% and FIIs have a substantial stake at 16.03% of which HSBC Bank holds 9.93%. Currently the demand for the company’s product is driven by replacement market and it expects new demand to pick up once construction activity picks up from next 2-3 quarters.