Batliboi Ltd

This was a name to reckon till a few years ago, but today it seems to have a mixed bag. It is one of the oldest engineering listed companies of India and its existence of 68 years has become that of sputtering and revving. The company had ended Q4 with a net loss at Rs.8.19 lakh and to that extent, in Fy13, one can say, on face value that the performance has been better because it shows a turnaround with a net profit at Rs.11 lakh. But this could be directly attributed to two facts – firstly, it had a forex gain of Rs.94.31 lakh and secondly, a tax refund of Rs.6.49 lakh. But for those two, the operating expense of Rs.30 crore and the interest outgo of Rs.1.89 crore were enough to wipe out the net sales of Rs.31 crore. Segment wise, machine tools posted highest revenue amongst all but posted a loss at EBIT level and its air-conditioner and refrigeration segment continues to struggle. Only textile engineering did better with a YoY 8% rise in revenue and 81% rise in EBIT.

Promoters hold 81.73% stake in the company. This high stake gets sweetened on the news that the company owns a sizeable amount of land bank in Ahmedabad in prime areas. It is stated to own around Rs.25-30 crore worth of free hold land and around Rs.20 crore worth of buildings. One has to wait and watch to see if this trend of profitability continues and what moves the promoters make to bring down their holding to the SEBI stipulated 75%.