Tamilnadu Newsprint & Paper Ltd - Rs 75.00

Incorporated in 1979, Tamilnadu Newsprint & Paper Ltd (TNPL) was promoted by the Government of Tamil Nadu who still holds around 35% stake in the company. Inspite of being a public sector company, TNPL pioneered the concept of producing paper from Bagasse, namely sugarcane waste thereby using as little wood as possible. Today apart from being one of the lowest cost manufacturer, company boast of having the world’s largest bagasse based paper mill with a capacity of 2,45,000 TPA. It is also the largest exporter of wood free paper from India. TNPL basically manufactures printing and writing paper comprising cream wove, copier and mapiltho paper for business stationery, classical writing, computer stationery and other commercial and quality printing. It offers a range of high-quality surface sized maplitho paper to suit any kind of printing - sheet-fed or web-offset. It is the undisputed market leader for computer stationery in domestic market. Presently company’s product is supplied to over 30 countries across Asia-Pacific, Australia, Middle East, the Mediterranean and the African subcontinent with exports contributing nearly 20% of total revenue. Of late, TNPL has diversified into cement and real estate development in a very small scale.

TNPL is acknowledged as the world leader in technology for the manufacture of paper from bagasse and has the most modern paper mill in the country with unique bagasse procurement, storing, preserving, handling, processing and pulping system. It continues to enjoy its relatively lower reliance on wood because of its vision to make paper primarily from Bagasse - a sugarcane waste product, which is abundant and cheap, as compared to wood which is scarce and expensive. Ironically, due to this technology it actually avoids the chopping down of trees in about 30,000 acres of forest land every year. However it maintains a relationship of 65:35 for bagasse and wood pulp in production to ensure high quality of the paper. After the completion of the Phase – I of Mill Expansion Plan, TNPL now boast of having paper production capacity of 2,45,000 TPA. It has also increased its captive pulp production capacity from 170,000 TPA to 260,000 TPA with element chlorine free (ECF) bleaching. In order to further de-risk the exposure to volatile wood pulp prices, company has been constantly increasing the pulpwood plantation through farm forestry and captive plantation schemes. In the last fiscal i.e. FY09 company has further brought 10,571 acres under its fold thereby taking the total count to 40,291 acres. On the other hand, company is already self-sufficient in power with in-house captive power generation capacity of 86.12 MW and another 35.50 MW thru wind farm. Infact it has been supplying surplus power to State grid.

For FY09, TNPL made an all time high production of 2,54,903 tons of paper against 2,45,471 tons last year with a capacity utilization of 104%. And as usual, for the 18th year in the row company sold the entire production and achieved zero stock of finished goods as on 31st March 2009 which is a unique record in the paper industry. Recently during April’09, TNPL implemented the life cycle extension of its Paper Machine I thru a capital investment of Rs 70 cr. This has improved the runnability of the machine along with improved quality of product. Moreover, considering the robust outlook for paper industry and to maintain its future growth, TNPL is implementing the Phase – II of Mill Expansion plan which will augment the production capacity by whopping 60% to 400,000 TPA from the current 245,000 TPA. The project is expected to complete by June 2010 and involves an investment of Rs 1000 cr (increased from Rs 725 cr estimated earlier). The project has been funded mostly by debt and partially thru internal accruals. Interestingly, TNPL has entered into the carbon trading by having got its Bio-methanation plant registered as CDM project with UNFCCC and is expected to get 37,000 CER as carbon credit till 2013. Moreover it is setting up a mini cement plant with a capacity of 400 tpd for producing high grade cement using the lime sludge and fly ash – the waste material generated in the process of manufacture of paper. TNPL is also constructing an IT Park measuring an office area of 4 lakhs sq. ft. on its surplus land in suburb of Chennai. Both these projects are estimated to complete by mid 2010.
Financially as well as fundamentally company is on a strong footing, but however it has taken a significant debt on its books to finance the mill expansion plan. For FY09 company is estimated to have debt equity ratio of 1.3~1.4x times which is although not alarming. For FY10 it may pay around Rs 125 cr of interest which will eat up nearly 50% of profit thereby having a financial leverage of more than 2x times. However post commencement of the expanded capacity, cash flow will improve considerably and by FY12 its debt equity ratio may fall back to 0.80x times or so. Well, meanwhile for FY09 TNPL has recorded 17% growth in sales to Rs 1097 cr whereas net profit declined by 5% to Rs 107 cr due to substantial jump in interest cost. This translates into an EPS of Rs 15.50 on equity of Rs 69.20 cr. Company has maintained its dividend at 45% which gives an whopping yield of 6% at CMP. However, company has recognized Rs 18 cr gain on exchange fluctuation of earlier years. Moreover it hasn’t provided Rs 47 cr mark to market notional loss on forex derivative contracts but instead created a hedging reserve account. Although its an non operational item but any actual booking of loss may dent the bottomline in the coming years. But considering company’s eco friendly technology, Cash EPS of Rs 30, dividend yield of 6%, book value of nearly Rs 100 and most importantly future growth, scrip is available relatively cheap. Investors can buy at dips to get 50% return within 15 months.

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