Waterbase hits a new high

Rating agency, Crisil put out a report yesterday stating that India’s shrimp exports are likely to double and touch $7 billion by 2022. This is thanks to the strong demand, high quality, improved product mix and increase in aquaculture area in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha and West Bengal.

Between Fy12 and FY17, India’s shrimp production doubled and helped grab the opportunity created by lower supplies from Asia. Indian companies as such have read the writing on the wall long time ago and are in the process of expanding infrastructure to enable export of more value-added products; this is going to have a significant impact on the bottomlines of aqua culture companies.

In response to this report, Thapar group company, Waterbase, which mainly makes shrimp feed hit a new high today at Rs.259.85, a straight 13% jump over yesterday’s close of Rs.229.55.

The company, in a TV interview recently stated that it is planning on some aggressive expansion for a pan India presence. It is looking at a 20% and above growth rate from now on. Waterbase currently has a 7% market share in India.

The company posted a great set of numbers for Q2Fy18 with a 266% (YoY) jump in net profit at Rs.9.50 crore. Revenue was up 21% at Rs.97 crore and EBITDA rose 195% to Rs.15 crore. Raw material costs coming down 59% helped the bottomline. EBITDA margin showed a sharp 949 bps expansion to 16%.