Liberty Shoes plans to raise Rs 100-150cr for expansion

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Liberty Shoes plans to raise Rs 100-150cr for expansion

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Adesh Gupta, CEO, Liberty Shoes, speaks about the results and gives his outlook going forward.

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Excerpts from Midcap Radar on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » ALSO READ See latest News about Liberty Shoes See previous management interviews See what other Experts & Brokerages are saying about Liberty Shoes Liberty Shoes BSE | NSE 30/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Liberty Shoes?

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Adesh Gupta, CEO, Liberty Shoes , speaks about the results and gives his outlook going forward.

Below is a verbatim transcript of his interview with CNBC-TV18`s Latha Venkatesh and Gautam Broker. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: Take us through the performance, yes, there is a kind of steady margin performance, it hasn't deteriorated. Do you think margins can start to feel the pinch?

A: I think there is a pressure on the price increase owing to the oil prices and raw material prices going up. But at the same time, the company has made a turn on strategy by including its sales through additional distributor, through additional phase outlet focusing on retail to control the over expenses so that the increase in the raw material cost somehow could be managed with the growth in sales.

However, what we are trying is that in the last two-three quarters, the turnout that we have started working and the sale this year has grown up by almost 25% in the last quarter. We hope that the trend will continue.

On the profitability side, yes, there is a pressure, but we believe that we will maintain our bottom-line or we will try to do better as we move into the next quarter.

Q: You are not the only export company that has reported good numbers and a certain confidence in terms of performance. Is there a trend in terms of Indian companies being able to snatch a goodish bit of Chinese orders or rather orders which would have gone to China?

A: No, what we could say here is that there is a trend which we can see that a lot of companies in Europe and US are looking towards India as their next outsourcing destination. I would not say the whole karwa is moving towards India. But, yes, we see that with that inflection point coming where people are bit of scared to put all their eggs in Chinese market and they are looking at India and that is how we see our growth in exports which has also got 20% growth.

Q: I don't know how well you know your Chinese competition in terms of cost, but is it that there are higher inflation pressures in China? Compared to the yuan the rupee has depreciated a little more. Do all these factors play a role in making it easy for Indian companies to kind of outperform their Chinese competitors?

A: What matters is it is not my individual competitiveness. It is the country competitiveness which comes first, which means if my exchange rate vis-à-vis US dollar or Europe is not favouring my exports then I lose the competitive edge. Surely when our rupee is going to 45 level from the past of 40-41, naturally our competitive edge has grown up by 10%.

Similarly, if the Chinese yuan is revalued and then we can see that benefit also comes, we automatically get a cutting edge in terms of our exports. So, automatically the currency is a major portion of the growth pattern which we can see from the Indian exporters or from Chinese exports going down, if we have to move forward.

Q: Last year you did about Rs 260 crore, for first nine months you have already done Rs 230. What is the expectation for the full year and FY12, are you likely to see 20% or more than that?

A: I think we will maintain our growth rate or it could be even higher. It is difficult to commit any numbers at this point of time. But we are very bullish because our retail is growing, our reach is growing, we have more distributors, we have more retailers talking about the product. So, we see that trend continue, even if the stock market or the economy is not growing at the rate which we should expect. But I do not see any pressure on the sales going down.

Q: Last we spoke to you, you had also outlined your plans to improve or increase the company owned stores, are you looking to raise any funds for that? You were also in talks with a few media partners who are looking to issue a few debentures, is that plan still in place?

A: Yes, I think till last year we had or maybe even in the current year, the last calendar year, we infused all the capital from the company to open more retail outlets. But as we move forward, surely we are looking at all these options including private equity, including debt or through media. Whatever means which are going to come to the company, the board will take a final decision as to what route we have to follow to commensurate with the growth we have for the next year.

Q: What could be the quantum of the potential fund raising plan?

A: We are looking at somewhere between 100 crore and 150 crore for our new expansion plan going forward. We are going very bullish about our retail expansion plan and also because we have adequate capacity to support our sales graph and as a result when we move more into retail, expanding our retail or having more distribution, we will need more working capital, we will need more investment in the form of stocks to be placed in the store. So, for that we definitely need a lot of capital.

Q: What will be the mode of raising money, will it be shares, warrants, preferential allotments?

A: It is not decided. We are already weighing all the options in terms of private equity, in terms of debt funding or in terms of media buying. We have to look at all those options and by end of this financial year, we have probably come to some understanding as to what route we have to follow.