Will incur Rs 10000 mn Capex per year over next 3-4 years – Aarti Industries
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Excerpts from an interview of Mr. Rajendra V Gogri, Chairman and MD, Aarti Industries with CNBC-TV18 dated 15th March 2021:
- Gogri said the demand is higher. The discretionary sector demand has picked up.
- Considering China plus one factor, demand is diverted to India. India comes ahead of other countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Malaysia when it comes to specialty chemicals.
- The company is expecting pre-Covid demand in Q4FY21E.
- Speaking on capacity, he said the company will incur a Capex of Rs 10,000 mn each year for the next 3-4 years.
- This Capex will be utilized to introduce new products as well as the expansion of existing products.
- The company will not directly participate in the Pharma PLI scheme, however, the Pharma PLI Scheme is expected to benefit the general chemical sector indirectly.
- The company has posted single-digit revenue growth in 9MFY21 and a flat bottom line YoY is expected in FY21E. However, Mr. Gogri guided for a 20% growth in top-line as well as in bottom line in FY22E.
- Exports are usually 40-45% of total revenues and the rest is domestic sales. The major growth is expected on the discretionary side which was badly affected in 1FY21.
- Speaking on capacity utilization, he said some plants are running at 80-90% utilization levels and new capacities are running at 20-30% utilization levels.
- Speaking on the demerger of the Pharmaceutical business, he said a committee has been set up to look at the available option. The decision of the committee is yet to come on board.
Asset Multiplier comments:
- As per a study conducted by McKinsey & Company, the Indian specialty market is expected to grow to $40bn over the next 4 years from $28bn in 2018.
- Within the specialty chemical segments in India, surfactants, specialty polymers, and textile chemicals and dyes are among the top segments expected to further grow in line with market demand.
- Indian specialty companies need to ramp up capacities and infrastructure to get maximum advantage from specialty chemical sector growth prospects.
Consensus Estimate: (Source: Market screener website)
- The closing price of Aarti Industries was ₹ 1,286 as of 16-March-2021. It traded at 41x/29x/25x the consensus Earnings per share estimate of ₹ 31.0/44.0/52.1 for FY21E/FY22E/FY23E respectively.
- The consensus average target price is ₹ 1,241/- which implies a PE multiple of 24x on FY23E EPS of 52.1/-.
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