Everest Kanto eyes Rs 7-7.5 EPS for FY12

Everest Kanto Q3 consolidated net profit was up at Rs 23 crore versus Rs 1.5 crore, year-on-year, YoY. Its consolidated net sales were up at Rs 197 crore versus Rs 169 crore, YoY.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Prem Khurana, CMD, Everest Kanto, spoke about the results and his outlook for the company. Below is a verbatim transcript of his exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18's Udayan Mukherjee and Mitali Mukherjee. Also watch the accompanying video. Q: Last quarter you spoke of it being the last quarter of pain and things picking up in the current quarter, have things moved in line with your expectations? A; Yes, things are moving as we expected. All our plants, internationally, have started doing better. We have seen a good value addition as well as good revenues in India. We have seen the similar in Dubai. US and China are picking up. I hope the good start will continue now, at least for a long time, we are very sure about that. Q: The problem is that the domestic CNG market has been quite weak, are you seeing any signs of pickup out there? What was the experience like in this current quarter? A: The reason is that infrastructure has not come up as was expected, but still the retrofitters, they are buying a good quantity. As well as some of the OEMs, they are active. But the larger OEMs are still not that active. Because we have diverted our sales to exports in various countries, we are comfortable and we are able to sell whatever we produce. So, as on today, there is not pressure on sales. Once Indian OEMs pickup, we are sure the margins will improve largely. We expect that to happen soon. Q: There was deferral of the Jumbo Cylinder order in the first half of the year, has that been coming through in the second half and just as an ad on, is it coming through on lower margins though? A: What has happened is that then we had a very good defence order, so we were able to execute that defence order. Part of this order will go in this current quarter. We are expecting large orders on Jumbo Cylinders, but they are still to materialise. Most of our other plants are working to almost full capacity, say about 75-80%. And for Jumbo, we have got the raw material ready, we have some semi-finished material also. Once it picks up, it will give larger revenues. Q: You have guided to 25-30% revenue growth for FY12, given the momentum you are seeing in sales right now, do you think you can better that target or you will stick with 25-30% range? A: I won