Key Highlights

FY'15 was a very challenging year for the industry and for the company. Unseasonal rains, scanty rains, floods etc affected the crops and the industry didn't have the pricing power. Despite the challenging conditions, Rallis India performed to the satisfactory level.

In India, while Agriculture is growing the fastest, there are many miscalculations and miss allocations of agricultural land by the Government which lowers the overall productivity. While Government, industries are working on the same, the pace is generally slower.

June 2015 has been by far the best month for rainfall for India. Geographically also it is well spread. However for sowing, the real month is July as most of the sowing happens in July every year. IMD continues to maintain its negative stand for July which is a concern.

Pricing power of the industry would entirely depend upon monsoon. However early signs indicate that its going to be better on YoY basis.

Management expects orders finally to come for the Dahej facility in next 6 months. Currently, small orders and testing are going on.

Metahelix's sales grew by more than 30% in FY'15 to around Rs 300 crore. Management expects net sales to cross Rs 1000 crore in next 5 years. Good amount of brand building and fixed costs are incurred for the sales and the margins will improve in FY 2016, once sales increases.

The company is thinking of an option of venturing into Farm mechanising tools for farmers, as there is severe shortage of labour in agricultural industry in India. The company works closely with more than 1.5 million farmers and has a ready market available.

Going forward, the Non pesticides business will grow faster than the pesticides business.

Overall, FY 2016 performance should be better than FY 2015 as last year's environment was very challenging. How much better will depend on the progress and spread of monsoon.