Container Corporation of India (Concor) held the conference call to discuss the financials for the Quarter and Year ended March 09, and future business prospects of the company on 17 April 2009. Rakesh Mehrotra – Managing Director, Suresh Kumar – Director Finance and P Alli Rani – ED Finance addressed the call. Some highlights of the call are:
- The company has observed adverse impact of the global financial melt down in the quarter ended March 09. Particularly port volumes in the west coast were down by 20-27% in the months of January and February 09. Around 90% of the company’s EXIM revenues come from the west coast.
- However, it has observed improvement in the month of March and volumes picked up in the month of April 09. The average tendencies has increased from 1500-2000 TEU’s per day in the month of first two months of CY 09, to 5000-6000 TEU’s per day in the month of April 09. The company has run 12-13 trains per day in JNPT-Delhi route in Q4FY09. But the no of trains in this route has improved to 17 in the month of April 09.
- The company has observed higher incidence of empty flat running to 16% in Q4FY09 as against 12-13% in the corresponding previous year.
- For the quarter ended March 09, Physical volumes were down by 22% to 410114 TEU’s and domestic volumes were up by 6% to 131638 TEU’s totaling the net volumes down by 17% to 541752 TEU’s.
- For the year ended March 09, the physical volumes in EXIM segment were down by 6% to 1854959 TEU’s and that of domestic segment were down by 4% to 453273 TEU’s; totaling the net volumes down by 6% to 2308232 TEU’s.
- For the quarter ended March 09, the originating container volumes were down by 82% in EXIM segment to 68725 TEU’s and in the domestic segment the number zoomed to 303092 TEU’s in the domestic segment as against 62994 TEU’s in the corresponding previous quarter.
- The dwelling time at the ports has come down from 15-18 days in Q3FY09, to 12-14 days in Q4FY09. However, the normal dwelling time is much lower at 8-9 days.
- For the quarter ended March 09, the income from the rail freight was down by 8% to Rs 635.61 crore, road freight has fell by 2% to Rs 28 crore and Handling services fell by 15% to Rs 82 crore. Only Terminal service charges have increased by 43% to Rs 73 crore.
- For the year ended March 09, the income from Road fright was up by 18% to 127 crore, Rail fright improved by 27% to 2565 crore and ground handling charges increased by 45% to Rs 273 crore. The handling services were flat at Rs 347 crore.
- The company has reflected its improved performance in FY 09 through profitability ratios. The Gross profit to the operating income ratio has increased to 34.26% as against 31.5% in the corresponding previous year and the Net Profit to operating income has increased to 24% from 22.74% in the corresponding previous year.
- For the year ended FY09, Return on Investment of the company is 22% and that of Return on net fixed assets was 45%. The cash on books was Rs 1763.54 crore.
- For the year ended March 09, the company has 57 terminals and 225 rakes which translate to 9500 wagons. The company has 2 terminals which were about to get operational in the month of April 09. By the end of FY10, 3 more terminals which are currently under construction will be added to the count.
- The company projects a Capex of Rs 600 crore for FY10, of which 80% caters to the wagons expansion, 10-15% towards terminal expansions. The company has around 2000 wagons in order, of which 1400 wagons will be delivered in FY10. It is also in terms on a new agreement for adding 600 new wagons to its fleet. The company also projected capex for FY11 to be Rs 600 crore.
- Fresh & Healthy – a subsidiary of CONCOR, has revenues of Rs 44 crore for the year ended March 09. The total procurement of Fruits by the company was around 7800MT. At the PAT level the company has reported loss of Rs 8 crore as against Rs 18 crore, in the corresponding previous year. Going ahead the management has projected revenues of Rs 55 crore, with a procurement of about 9500 MT of fruits for FY10. The company also expects the business to breakeven in FY10.
- With the improving trends in the port volumes the company expects its top line to grow by 12% and profits up by 15% in FY10. The company is keen to expand its domestic segment in the coming years and thus improve its share in the domestic market.