Premier Ltd
A Walchandnagar group company, Premier was in the news lately after it announced that Indian Railways, in the process of compulsory acquisition had acquired about 26 acres of the company’s land at Dombivli for the Dedicated Freight Corridor project being implemented by it. The total amount expected to be received as compensation for such acquisition is about Rs. 100 core of which it has received the first tranche payment of Rs.27 crore. The company totally owned 68 acres of land, after it had monetized 150 acres in January, 2013. It had received Rs.220 crore as part consideration for transaction it entered for development of its 150 acres land with Horizon Projects. Another Rs.220 crore will be received by the company on 31st Dec 2014 from this project, which aims to build residential flats.
This is the same company which was earlier known as Premier Automobiles Ltd and used to make Fait and the Premier Padmini. Since then, all has changed in the sector and the company. Today, it has two business segments - Engineering and Automotive. The Engineering segment has two activities - CNC Machine Division and Engineering while the Automotive segment consists of LUVs – Roadstar and Sigma and assembly of SUVs – mainly RiO from its facility at Chinchwad, Pune. The performance for Q4FY13 was driven mainly by its other income and not by operational efficiency. Net sales dropped 42% (YoY) at Rs.46 crore but it ended the quarter with a net profit at Rs.71 crore, up almost 6 times on a YoY. The ‘other income’ as mentioned earlier, was due to the monetization of the land. The same story for FY13 - net profit stands higher at Rs.88 crore v/s Rs.23 crore in FY12. Promoters stake stands at 43.60% of which 13.33% is pledged. LIC holds 5.99% stake.