Genus Power pegs loss due to IOC depot fire at Rs 100-150cr

The fire that broke out in the Jaipur facility of Indian Oil Corporation on October 30 has impacted Genus Power Infrastructures Ltd, which has seen significant collateral damage.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Kailash Agarwal, Director of Genus Power Infrastructures spoke about the damage to the facility and the possible impact on margins going forward.
Here is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with Kailash Agarwal on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: Can you take us through what exactly was the damage you all have suffered. Any idea you can quantify in terms of damage to the manufacturing facility or to mere loss of production?

A: It is very difficult to say anything about the losses because we are very near to it and the fire broke out. So we had losses due to water, fire, blast, smoke and everything. But the fact is that we are still not allowed to go to the factory because there is no permission from the administration. So we cannot quantify the loss. But there is a huge loss.

Q: I am asking because your stock reacted to the bad news unfortunately from Rs 214 about a week ago, it came down to less than Rs 140. But today it has risen by Rs 10-12. Is there anything that you have been able to get by way of insurance money, is this market coming to terms with probably a reduction of loss at your end?

A: We are well insured but don’t have the insurance of loss of profit. But otherwise all assets are insured. I think it will take us three-five months to resume everything because it’s a total breakage of machineries etc. But it is difficult for me to quantify right now.

Q: To get an assumption of how it would look – you have clocked in margins of about 16% this time and a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 14 crore. Are you expecting any kind of hit on your margins going forward because of this whole incident?

A: The quarter in which we are running will be spoiled, and we will be impacted in the next quarter as well.

Q: I understand that you will not be able to quantify how much of your manufacturing facility could be damaged. But assuming that damage is not great, purely by way of loss of output for the next quarter what is the likely loss?

A: I feel in this quarter and coming quarter there will be a loss of around Rs 100-150 crore of manufacturing.