Quarterly Performance

The operating income fell by 4% to Rs 132.01 crore in September 2012 quarter. Drop in raw material and other expenditure costs, though negated partly by higher salary and purchase of stock in trade led to 60 bps improvement in OPM. But due to weak sales numbers, the operating profit fell by 2% to Rs 24.5 crore. Other expenditure, as % to sales net stock adjusted, fell by 140 bps to 20%. Raw material cost including traded goods dropped by 30 bps to 40%. But staff cost grew by 70 bps to almost 7%.

The PBT fell by 3% to Rs 20.7 crore on lower other income and higher depreciation costs. The depreciation cost grew by 3% to Rs 4.06 crore while the other income decreased by 37% to Rs 0.26 crore. At the end, net profit fell by 4% to Rs 13.98 crore due to 66 bps rise in effective tax rate.

Nine months Performance

For the nine months ended September 2012, the topline grew by 4% to Rs 410.25 crore. OPM fell 190 bps to 16.4%. Thus the operating profit fell by 7% to Rs 67.31 crore. The profits were further hampered by 15% growth in depreciation thereby resulting in 10% de-growth in PBT to Rs 56.42 crore. Nevertheless, with a 70 bps fall in tax rate limited the fall in net profit to 9% to Rs 38.1 crore.

On a nine month basis, the raw material cost stayed steady while employee and other expenses spiked up (all components, adjusted for net of sales). While raw material cost stayed steady around 41%, employee cost and other expenses shot up by 50 bps and 90 bps respectively.

During year ending December 2011, the company had registered a 23% growth in net sales to Rs 543.66 crore and 13% growth in net profit to Rs 55.22 crore.

• The promoters' share in the total shareholding has remained unchanged at 55.57% in September 2012 quarter. The promoters' have pledged ‘nil' shares of the company.

• The scrip closed 1.2% lower at Rs 340 today at BSE after hitting a high of Rs 349.05 earlier during the day.