Mold-Tek Packaging Ltd traded over 3 percent lower on August 7 after the small-cap firm’s profit declined 13.71 percent to Rs 21.71 crore in the June quarter from the year-ago period.
The Hyderabad-based company, which manufactures injection-molded containers for lubes, paints, food and other products, posted revenue of Rs 185.91, down 10.55 percent year on year (YoY).
While the overall volumes were up by 1.8 percent, paints and lubricants’ volumes dropped 7.6 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. Food and FMCG volumes were up 36 percent year-on-year, the company said in a regulatory filing over the weekend.
On the operating front, the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) were at Rs 35.68 crore, down by 4.32 percent. The margin expanded by 96 basis points YoY but declined 44 bps from the previous quarter to 18.8 percent.
One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher has retained its “hold” rating on the scrip but reduced the target price to Rs 956 from Rs 968. It lowered the FY24/25 EPS estimates by 12.3 percent and 9.2 percent, anticipating reduced volumes, realisation, and EBIDTA/ton estimates (Rs 41/42 per kg) due to mixed near-term outlook.
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Volumes were hit due to the adverse effect of unseasonal rains on the ice cream and dairy segment, lower sales value due to declining realisations and sub-par capacity utilization (45 percent) of Khandala unit due to expansion/modernisation shutdown at the Asian Paints unit, the brokerage said.
While overall volume growth is expected to gradually improve, Prabhudas Lilladher, Head of Research, Amnish Aggarwal said high single-digit volume growth in paints and tepid growth in edible oils and lubricants would restrict FY24 volume growth to 10-11 percent and sales growth to low single digits.
The brokerage remains optimistic about the firm’s long-term prospects.
Bottomed out EBITDA/Kg, driven by price hikes from customers, mix improvement with higher growth in the flavours and fragrance segment and addition of new plants in Lucknow and Daman and capacity expansions in Mysore and Visakhapatnam to meet demand from Asian Paints are some of the reasons for the optimistic outlook.
Expectations of 5,000-ton demand from Grasim by FY25, which is 25 percent of the current volume, with higher realisations and entry into pharma augur well for the company.
At 12.31, the stock was trading at Rs 982.35 on NSE, down 2.02 percent from the previous close.
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