Anjani Portland Cement - Rs.33.50

Established in 1983, Anjani Portland Cement Ltd. (APCL) is a small cement manufacturing company in Hyderabad led by Mr. Vishnu Raju of the Rassi Group. It produces 53 grade & 43 grade cement from high grade limestone and sells its under the brand name ‘Anjani’. It also manufactures blended cements like Portland Slag Cement and Portland Pozzolona Cement depending upon the customers' requirement and distributes its product through an extensive dealer network mostly in Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu. With its consistent quality and timely delivery, APCL has created a niche for itself in the fragmented cement industry.

Its manufacturing plant is located at Nalgonda district in Andhra Pradesh having an installed capacity of 3,00,000 TPA. Equipped with state of the art technology from Nihon of Japan, this plant has the distinction of being one of the most modern plants in the mini-cement sector. The dry process technology adopted by the unit has many advantages, such as efficiency, better quality control and reduced power consumption which results in low cost of production with consistent and sustained output. Besides, APCL has a mining lease spread over 300 acres merely 6 kms from the factory for mining of limestone. Moreover, it has a captive power plant of 2.7 MW through its wholly-owned subsidiary namely Vennar Ceramics.

Cement industry is witnessing the best of times due to large infrastructure developments, irrigation projects and the ongoing boom in the housing sector which has led to an unprecedented demand for cement. This demand coupled with the sharp rise in cement prices made APCL turnaround smartly. For the nine months ending 31st December 2006, its sales increased by 70% to Rs.54 cr. whereas net profit stood at Rs.8.60 cr. compared to net loss of Rs.2.50 cr. in the corresponding previous period. Its OPM has improved substantially to 23% against 14% for FY06. Accordingly, for FY07 it is estimated to report net sales of Rs.80 cr. with net profit of Rs.10.50 cr. This would translate into an EPS of Rs.6 on its equity of Rs.18.40 cr. With its 52 week high at Rs.44 and the current market cap of Rs.60 cr., the scrip has the potential to appreciate 50% in 12-15 months. Investors are advised to accumulate at sharp declines only.