Piramal Ent

The company posted a good set of numbers for Q4FY16. Revenue during the quarter rose 34% (YoY) at Rs.1734 crore. Operating profit rose by a whopping 141% at Rs.468 crore and EBITDA margin jumped up from 15% to 27%. R&D expenses were lower during the period on account of scaling back of our investments in NCE research in FY2015. The company’s interest expense during Q4 shot up 155% to Rs.304 crore. This was primarily on account of increase in debt for making investments under Financial Services segment.

It ended the quarter with a net profit at Rs.180 crore, up 89%. The surge in net profit was thanks to the exceptional net gain of Rs.72 crore v/s Rs.4 crore (YoY) and this was primarily on account of sale of certain properties.

The company ended FY16 with a 29% rise in consolidated total revenue at Rs.6610 crore but net profit fell 67% at Rs.651 crore.

In terms of verticals, financial services was the best performer. Its income from this segment rose 112% for Q4 and 99% higher for FY16. The growth in income was primarily driven by increase in size of Loan Book. Loan Book grew by 174% to Rs.13,048 crore. Its entry into Construction Finance enabled it to significantly up his loan book and it now constitutes 42% of the Real Estate loan book. Asset quality continued to remain robust with a GNPA ratio of just 0.91%.