Spicejet soars into the sky

Spicejet has literally taken off today! The stock is up over 12% at Rs.21.30 with some 35 lakh shares changing hands as against a two-week average of 15 lakh shares. The 52-week high is at Rs.25.70.

The market is exuberant with the company’s performance for Q4FY15. Posting a turnaround after 6 quarters, the company posted a net profit of Rs.22 crore v/s loss of Rs.321 crore and this percolated down to the FY15 numbers too, wherein it did not turnaround but managed to bring down the losses from Rs.1003 crore in FY14 to Rs.687 crore in FY15.

The Q4FY15 numbers include the benefit of renegotiated contracts and settlements, the provisioning for re-delivery expenses, and a net gain on an insurance claim. It received Rs.650 crore after the new promoters took over from Maran. The company has cleared Rs.400 crore liabilities and another Rs.200 crore of bank loans.

But for this addition of benefits, the losses would have continued. The company operated at 47% reduced capacity during Q4, leading to 50% drop in topline. The silver lining here – this led to 53% drop in costs.