Gateway Distriparks held a conference call on Jan 22 2009. The call was represented by the company management and the highlights of the call were given below:
Revenues for the quarter ended December 08, on standalone basis has increased sequentially by 29% to Rs 59.85 crore. The bottom line was up by 50% to Rs 32.88 crore as against Rs 21.95 crore.
Throughput of CFS business for the nine months ended December 08 has marginally improved by just 5% on y-o-y basis to 254403 TEU’s from 242837 TEU’s in the corresponding previous period. But on the sequential basis, the through put has decreased by 15% from 89771 TEU’s in Q2FY09 to 77411 TEU’s in the current quarter.
The throughput in the rail business has came down in the quarter ended December 08 to 16177 TEU’s from 20404 TEU’s in the quarter ended September 08. The through put has increased for the nine months ended December 08, to 46653 TEU’s from 24997 TEU’s in the corresponding previous period.
The Rail business, which has started its operations one and half years ago, has done extremely well by reporting turn over of Rs 121.26 crore in the nine months ended December08, as against Rs 26.72 crore in the corresponding previous quarter. EBIDTA improved to Rs 10.38 crore in the nine months ended period against Rs 3.27 crore in the corresponding period. However, due to higher depreciation and interest outflows, there was a net loss of Rs 16.42 crore against Rs 1.31 crore in the corresponding previous period.
Around 50% of the company’s revenues come form the trains which run between Delhi and JNPT, and the company also has containers to carry cargo like chemicals and construction material from west to east. On the domestic front the trains are also operational in that east – south east to North for the cargo access. The average lead distance of the train business is around 1700 Km
Around 30 trains are operational with one more coming in the next quarter. The company is the largest train provider and the largest mover of refrigerant cargo.
The haulage charges which have been increased by the Indian railways in the month of August for the heavy weight segment by 16% and medium weight by 10% have decreased by 10% after the announcement of stimulus package.
The revenuers from CFS segment for the nine months ended December 08 has increased by 21% to Rs 26.44 crore and Net profit was reported at Rs 11.55 lakh as against loss of Rs 75.24 lakh in the corresponding previous period. Around 60-70% of the CFS segment is by import and the remaining is through export.
The port volumes on the EXIM have tumbled on the back of the global financial crisis. There has been drop in the port volumes by 10% on month on month basis. Even in the month of January, the volumes were down by 10%. However, the company has not observed much of the pressure on the domestic front. The company is cautiously optimistic in performing its trade in the light of the global financial turmoil.
By the end of December 08, the company has 13 rakes and 3 facilities (Gaddi, Jaipur, Jodhpur) which are fully operational. The capacity utilization was around 76.5% for CFS. One more new rake has been added into the company during January 09, totaling the total rakes to 14.
The company has observed surge in the demand in the domestic market but the EXIM seems to be nervous on the back of global economic slow down. Going further with the strong business model, the company aims to grab more market share.
GDL operates two large CFSs at JNP and CFSs at Chennai, Vizag & Kochi. GDL operates cold chain logistics business through its subsidiary, Snowman Frozen Foods Limited (SFFL), a JV with Mitsubishi Group and through another subsidiary.
The cash on hand at the end of the quarter is around Rs 75 crore, of which Snowman has Rs 25 crore, and the remaining Rs 50 crore was cash in hand on standalone basis. However, the company has completed buyback of shares and thus in the month of January, the cash in hand stands reduced to Rs 50 crore, of which Snowman has Rs 25 crore.
The debt on the books for the quarter ended December 08 amounts to Rs 203 crore, of which Rs 193 crore of debt was on the behalf of rail business.
In the Q1 board meeting, the Board had approved the proposal to buy back the company’s shares up to an amount of Rs 64 crore, which represented 10 % of the company’s paid-up capital and reserves, through market-purchase at a maximum price of Rs 110. The company has now completed the buyback by acquiring 7.883 Million equity shares for an aggregate amount of Rs 64 crore.