Cera Sanitary

This is India’s third largest sanitaryware company, based in Ahmedabad. The company had posted a good performance for Q1FY15 and it kept up with the same consistency, in fact posted much better numbers for Q2FY15. On a 25% (YoY) jump in consolidated net sales at Rs.199 crore, it posted a smart 45% jump in net profit at Rs.16 crore. And for H1FY15, net profit was at Rs.29 crore which was 56% of FY14 net profit of Rs.52 crore. This exuberant performance was despite the company’s plant at Kadi shutting down for 10 days due to heavy rains. Its EPS for the first half stood at Rs.23.22 (face value Rs.5/share), giving an annualized EPS of Rs.46 for FY15 v/s Rs.41 in FY14.

In the current year it plans to expand the faucetware capacity to 10,000 pieces per day, set up a wind farm of 4MW in Gujarat, increase sanitaryware capacity from 2.7 million pieces to 3 million pieces and put up a roof top solar plant of 1 MW capacity at Kadi for captive use.

The company has now emerged has a complete bathroom solutions company, with a strong brand image and holds the third position, after HSIL and Parryware Roca. It enjoys a market share of around 24%. Sanitaryware accounts for 74% of its income, faucets and tiles bring in 15% and 7%,respectively, with rest coming from lifestyle business - bathtubs, jacuzzis, steam cubicles, shower partitions, shower panels and allied sanitaryware products.  Though the thing to remember is that one-third of its revenue is eaten away by imports and this means it is always exposed to currency ups and downs. Going ahead as its base and reach increases, the company hopes to end FY15 with an over 30% growth in topline and EBIDTA margins in second half could be better than current 15%.

The market was obviously thrilled with the numbers as the stock hit  a new high at Rs.1848 with volumes going up 48 times.