Expect topline at Rs 1400 cr in current year: J Kumar Infra

J Kumar Infraprojects reported a 14 percent rise in its Q2 net profit to Rs 20.2 crore from Rs 17.6 crore in the year-ago period and total income was up by 27 percent to Rs 300.2 crore versus Rs 235.5 crore. The company has bagged order worth Rs 294 crore.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Nalin Gupta, MD, J Kumar Infraprojects, discusses the company’s earnings and its plans ahead.

Below is the transcript of Nalin Gupta's interview with Nigel D'Souza and Sumaira Abidi on CNBC-TV18.Nigel: Could you take us through a couple of factors, your topline has grown by close to around 25 percent, that is good going, margins have expanded to 21 percent, how did this come about and is this sustainable at this 21 percent levels?A: With regards to the topline, the company has seen -- it is a shift of nearly 25 percent which is taking the topline to Rs 300 crore. This is a very sustainable growth that J Kumar Infratech has been having and from the last year’s triggers also if you see we have been having a 25 percent growth and this year also it is going to be -- overall the annual situation also if you would see, you will find the topline going up close to around 20 percent. This is with the current order book that J Kumar has that takes care of the clear visibility for the coming two years for 20 percent average growth rate.Sumaira: What is worrying the street despite your numbers not being bad is your high debt. So I think your long-term borrowings have come off a little bit but short-term has gone up. Together you have nearly Rs 460 crore of debt if I am not wrong, what are your plans, any plan to bring it down, to pare it down?A: With respect to the borrowings if you see, this is mainly because of the high capex oriented jobs like underground metro -- it is a highly capital oriented business which is constituting to around Rs 1,500 crore put together for Delhi metro wherein the investments are very high but basically it is not going to increase in the same proportion to what it has to increase because if you see from the past two years it is almost stable and there has not been any shift in terms of short-term or long-term borrowings and over the period you will see declining it to some extent because we will be bidding in for Bombay Metro, we already have all these equipments or the initial investment that the company needs to do, we will not be required to do the same thing for Bombay metro because we already own it in a big way now.Nigel: With regards to your QIP, you had raised close to around Rs 140 crore, what was it used for on the first place?A: We had raised around Rs 136 crore from this QIP. Out of which around Rs 13 crore has been put in to the capex and around Rs 80 crore has been utilised for the working capital and balance around Rs 40-45 crore would be still lying in the bank. So this was not for repayment of some old dues, it was basically for the enhancement and the future progress of the company.

Sumaira: You also announced the order win of Rs 294 crore, what does this take your total order book to?A: As of now, as on September 30, 2014 the company is having an order book of around Rs 3,100 crore with an L1 of Rs 1,100 crore. So this Rs 300 crore put together takes it to Rs 3,100 crore order book as of September 30, 2014.Nigel: For this year, what is your guidance with regard to your revenue?A: We expect a topline of around close to somewhere between Rs 1,300 and Rs 1,400 crore for the current year and with similar EBITDA in PAT margins that the company is making now, we can be very much comfortable to have it by the end of this year.