Investing Reflections On India

Orient Ceramics is in the business of manufacturing tiles with outlets in North India for supplying primarily to residential customers but also to commercial enterprises such as hotels, shops etc.   The company has reported reasonable growth in revenues over the last five years but operating profits don’t seem to have kept up – generating about 24cr in operating profits on revenues of 290cr in the last financial year.   However, it operated with a high debt load of about 100cr, which substantially increases financial risk during interest rate hikes and/or economic downturns. The business is subject to risks of price rises of its raw materials (clay, chemicals etc.).   It is also exposed to the risks of Chinese dumping and related government attitudes on foreign dumping.   Moreover it is also vulnerable to heavy domestic competition primarily from the unorganised sector.

Asian Granito is in the business of manufacturing and distributing branded tiles. The company has shown a lot of growth in revenues over the last five years but this hasn’t been reflected in operating profitability presumably due to the effects of greater competition in its business.  It reported about 60cr of operating profits on revenues of 480cr of revenues in the last financial year.  It operated with a relatively high net debt load of 120cr (as at 31 st March, 2010) – which would cause irritations in a high interest-rate environment (as now) and in the event of margin pressures in the future. It is subject to risks of raw material price spikes (clay, glaze etc.), government policies on excise duties (which fluctuates widely) and competitive pressures in a fast growing industry.