Gravita surges 36% in 6 days as arm starts aluminium recycling unit in Togo

Shares of Gravita India surged 12 per cent to hit a record high of Rs 469.40 on the BSE in Monday’s intra-day trade on the back of heavy volumes. In the past six trading days, the stock of the industrial minerals company has rallied 36 per cent after it commenced an aluminium recycling plant in Togo, West Africa.

Gravita Togo SAU, a step down subsidiary of the company situated in Togo, started commercial production of aluminium cast alloys from a new recycling plant with an annual capacity of around 4,000 MTP A in phase I, Gravita India said in an exchange filing on December 5.

The company said it is expecting additional revenue of nearly Rs 60 crore per annum with gross margins of about 26 per cent from the new capacity. The company already has similar aluminium recycling facility in Tanzania, Senegal, Mozambique and India. This is in alignment with the company's vision of replicating the recycling business in different geographies, it said.

The company further said it will be procuring domestic aluminium scrap for production from this plant and it will cater the needs of aluminium die casting components manufacturing industries of auto & FMCG segments in China, Japan, Thailand, Korea and Vietnam.

Gravita Group is among one of the most reputed recycling companies across the globe and this new recycling facility will help the company in augmenting its aluminium segment capacity in Africa, it added.

Gravita India is engaged in manufacturing and recycling of lead, aluminium and plastic products.

Earlier on October 20, the company had announced that its step down subsidiary situated in Ghana, West Africa had started commercial production of recycled polypropylene granules from its new recycling plant with an annual capacity of around 1,200 MTPA in phase 1. The company has plans to increase this capacity to 2,700 MTPA in the next phase.

Meanwhile, in the past one year, the stock price of Gravita India has more-than-doubled or zoomed 100.2 per cent from a level of Rs 234.45 on the BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up nearly 6 per cent during the same period.

For Gravita India, the positive surprise in September quarter was the sizable reduction in net debt from Rs 350 crore to Rs 270 crore HoH on the back of strong free cash flow of Rs 110 crore, supported by reduction in net working capital cycle from 83 to 66 days (based on our calculation), mainly on the drop in inventory by 16 days, analysts at Emkay Global Financial Services said in a Q2 result update.

Management maintained its upbeat tone with capacity additions and scrap availability driving volumes along with improving efficiencies and balance sheet, the brokerage said. The stock is trading above its target price of Rs 445 per share.