Skip to main content

Interfit Techno


Interfit Techno is in the business of manufacturing stainless steel pipe fittings, ball valves etc. for the construction industry.  It generated 85% of its revenues from the Middle East.

The company has reported marginal operating profits in last five years with a recent spurt in revenues and profits in the last couple of years – reporting about 3cr of operating profits on revenues of about 25cr.  It operated with a moderate debt load.

The company, however, had accumulated losses over the last ten years – a former BIFR case - and it is only on its way to working itself out of it.  This is a serious adverse point against the competence of management in this business.  Minority shareholders need to convince themselves that the underlying causes of poor past performance have been remedied for good rather than covered up by a temporary spurt in business activity.

Moreover, it generated negative free cash flows in aggregate over the last five years primarily as a result of large amounts of cash used in operations during the downturn of 2008-09.

The business is exposed to the risks of high steel prices and the cyclical construction and building industry – particularly the risks of construction slowdown in the Middle East.  It is also subject to significant and frequent power cuts of up to 70% of full capacity (in Tamil Nadu) and hence has to rely on its own diesel generated power.  It also appears to be involved in large projects implying low bargaining power on terms and conditions and weak cash collection potential on a timely basis.

Management haven’t bothered to intelligently discuss business prospects in its annual report – reflecting poorly on its commitment to minority shareholders.  This factor, along with its poor financial performance over the last decade, appears to cast a bad light on management competence and stewardship.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

On The Radar: India's Small-Cap Equities (Concluded)

We have been running a series of articles titled ‘Under The Radar: India’s Small-Cap Equities’ beginning in December 2011 - and followed up twice - with the last article in December 2013. We would like to conclude this series after updating the small-cap index level and returns, comparing it to our expectations ex-ante, and analysing the current scenario.  Following this, we have also outlined where we may take this blog in the future. The small-cap index closed at 11,087.07 on December 31 st , 2014.  This compares to a level of 6,150.65 in our last article – resulting in an advance of over 80% to date. This is a handsome absolute return by any standard, particularly compared to Indian government bonds, which yielded around 8-9% for the period.  This justifies the conclusion at the end of our previous article that “small-caps in India offer among the most attractive bargains during any time since 2006 and certainly in the entire Indian stock market today...

IFB Agro Industries

IFB Agro Industries is in the business of producing alcohol (70% to 75% of revenues) and marine products. The company is based out of the state of West Bengal (WB), which is well known for its regressive attitudes towards businesses.  In the alcohol segment, it distributes ‘Volga’ vodka, ‘Jubilation’ rum, ‘Benjamin’ brandy (latter two launched recently).  Demand in the Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) appears to have a promising outlook with growth estimated at about 20% per annum.  It has also installed a new plant to enhance its country liquor production capacity since demand was outstripping supply – however, licenses weren’t granted by the state as at the end of last year.  In the marine segment, it distributes frozen marine products in the major metros through retail chains under the “IFB Royal” brand.  It also has a 48% market share in the shrimp feed trading business.  It had recently enhanced capacities in the marine division includi...

Under The Radar: India’s Small-Cap Equities (Part Three)

In February of this year, we summarised the valuation parameters of the BSE Small-cap Index in India (now the S&P BSE Small Cap Index) - following on from an earlier report we wrote in December, 2011 - and drew certain conclusions. We would like to update the valuation scenario with the data today, review those conclusions, and form new ones based on the available information. The small-cap index closed today (17 th December, 2013) at 6,150.65 with an indicated price to book value of 1.04. The closing value as on February, 2013 was 7,006.73 representing a decline of over 12% as of today. The current index value masks a greater fall of over 27% to a low of 5,085.56 in August, 2013. This represents an unsatisfactory overall performance for those who invested in small caps at the beginning of the year. In our earlier report, we made two assumptions towards the end of our report to form a conclusion as to prices then:          ...