We are working to improve our margins: Sumeet Industries

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Shankar Lal Somani, Chairman, Sumeet Industries spoke about the results and his outlook for the company."We have posted a good result. We are working to improve our margins", he said.

Below is the verbatim transcript of Shankar Lal Somani's interview to Surabhi Upadhyay and Nigel D'Souza on CNBC-TV18.Nigel: Good quarter for you, topline growth of more than 35 percent or thereabouts, how has the remainder of the year looking, last year you grew by only around 8 percent, you had a good start to the year, remainder of the year, could you look to grow 20-25 percent or thereabouts and also give us your margin outlook? Now it has come down to around 7 percent, last year it was around 8 percent?A: This year we have posted a good result. This was as per my expectation because we are working to improve our margins. Overall there is 35 percent increase in turnover and 77 percent increase in profit before tax (PBT), so this all is due to hardwork for things like value added products, cost reduction and all.Surabhi: Coming back to the outlook, how are you looking at the performance for the coming quarters? If you could give us some sense if not numerical guidance but in overall business outlook?A: We are working for our quality improvement and value added products and especially at present we are working to reduce the cost. We had installed some engines for reduction of power cost, dollar is also stable and our repayments are continuously going down. So interest burden is also going down. We have good improvement in current quarter and I hope this will continue for next quarters because power cost reduction and quality improvement is giving good benefit continuously.Nigel: You are saying that your debt is coming down. What exactly is the debt, how much is it coming down by and also have you been selling in the open market because promoter stake appears it is falling from around 45 percent to around 40 percent?A: Main promoters are not selling, never sold but some promoters or friends and relatives if they need money, they can sell.Nigel: You are sounding very positive about the rest of your year, you are saying that your topline will grow margins, you are making lot of efforts and all, if there is so much of confidence in the company then why is the promoter selling some stake in the open market, 45 percent to 40 percent is not a small amount?A: If some promoters need to contribute some other projects because a lot many projects are running and promoters contribution is required so if some promoter or friend or relatives need money for other products then they may sell but main promoters are not selling.