Atul Ltd

A part of the Sanjay Lalbhai group, Atul Ltd has been on the rise ever since it announced its Q1FY15. It posted a healthy 50% (YoY) jump in its net profit at Rs.60 crore and sequentially, it was up 18%. The YoY jump in net profit is despite the fact that the company had a big other income of Rs.13 crore in previous Q1 and operating expenses in current Q1 have risen 20% (YoY). This surge in bottomline was purely on higher topline; net sales for the quarter came in at Rs.636 crore, up 25%. On the other hand, sequentially, net sales showed a drop of 2% but bottomline rose on account of lower operating costs, higher other income and 33% decline in interest outgo. 

The company has two segments – Life Science Chemicals and Performance and other chemicals and it is the latter one which contributes mainly to the revenue – 78% to net sales, with an EBIT margin of 12%, which has doubled up from 6.5% in previous Q1. Comparatively, the growth in Life Science Chemicals has been muted with sales rising 7% and EBIT at 21% v/s 22% (YoY). So clearly, performance for the current Q1 was driven largely by Performance and other chemicals.