The order book position of the company stood at Rs 75 crore as on Sep ’07. The company has undertaken projects for Essar, Reliance Jamnagar Refinery and two other overseas orders. The company has also bid for some west Asian and local tenders worth Rs 300 crore with Tata Projects. Artson holds about 20% to 25% stake in such joint bids.

Artson Engineering, a Mumbai based project engineering company offers turnkey services in petroleum storage and handling systems, plant utilities, diesel power houses, CPP, energy conservation, waste-heat recovery and noise pollution control systems. The company has registered under BIFR and the proposal of the restructuring is under review.

Quarterly performance

Revenue for the quarter ended Sep ‘07 grew by 106% to Rs 8.10 crore. On account of rise in costs the OPM sharply fell by 800 bps to 10.5%. The proportion of raw material and other expenditure to sales net of stock adjustment expanded to 8.0% from 3.5%, and 67.7% from 48% respectively. While the general administrative expenses as a % of the net sales had gone down to 5.5% from 18%, the selling and distribution costs to net sales remained unchanged at 0.3%.

Thereby the resultant operating profit grew by 16% to Rs 0.85 crore. No provision for the interest had been made in the quarter as the company is a NPA. The doubling of depreciation charges to Rs 0.23 crore in the quarter ended Sep ’07 from Rs 0.11 crore in the corresponding previous period had lowered the growth momentum of the profit. The PBT remained unchanged at Rs 0.62 crore.

With EO item being nil in the quarter so also in the corresponding previous quarter and taxation being insignificant at Rs 3000, the net profit was higher by 7% to Rs 0.62 crore.

Performance for the YTD ended Sep ‘07

The company had registered a 158% y-o-y growth to Rs 35.76 crore for the 12 month ended Sep ’07. Due to the improved revenue and better cost control the OPM had improved to 15.9% from a 13.2% in the corresponding previous period. The resultant profits at the operating level had improved by 211% to Rs 5.70 crore.

Though the other income was negative at Rs 0.01 crore in the period as compared to an income of Rs 0.23 crore in the corresponding previous period, the PBDIT was higher by 176% at Rs 5.69 crore.

The interest cost was lower by 88% at Rs 0.02 crore, while that of the depreciation cost expanded by 52% to Rs 0.76 crore. Thereby the PBT expanded by 253% to Rs 4.91 crore.

There was no EO as on Sep ’07 as against an EO expenses of Rs 2.78 crore in the corresponding previous period. Thus the PBT after EO turned in to a profit of Rs 4.91 crore for the year ending Sep ‘07 as against a loss of Rs 1.39 crore.

Tax charges stood at Rs 0.02 for the year ended Sep ’07. The resultant net profit closed at Rs 4.89 crore for the year ended Sep ’07 as against a loss of Rs 1.40 crore in the corresponding previous period.

Valuation

The scrip is currently trading at Rs 47.50 on BSE.