Page Industries appoints V S Ganesh as new CEO; stock surges over 4%

V S Ganesh will be appointed for a period of 5 years effective June 1, 2021.

Page Industries shares advanced 4.5 per cent to Rs 28,806 on the BSE in an otherwise volatile market on Tuesday after the company approved appointment of V S Ganesh as Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company.

Ganesh will be appointed for a period of 5 years effective June 1, 2021. Consequent to the elevation, the Board has shortened his present term of Executive Director – Manufacturing and Operation to the closing hours on May 31, 2021.

At 10:10 am, the stock was ruling over 3 per cent higher at Rs 28,448 on the BSE as against a 0.44 per cent gain in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. So far in the calendar year 2021, the stock has given nil returns to its investors and is down 0.01 per cent on a YTD basis. From its 52-week high of Rs 32,372, touched on February 10, 2021, the stock has declined 15 per cent as of Monday, February 22.

For the quarter ended December 2020, Page Industries reported a 76.64 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 153.70 crore compared with a net profit of Rs 87.01 crore during the October-December period a year ago.

Revenue from operations, meanwhile, rose 16.78 per cent to Rs 927.06 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 793.82 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. PIL's total expenses were at Rs 723.94 crore in Q3FY21, up 6.39 per cent from Rs 680.41 crore in the year-ago period.

Bangalore-based Page Industries is the exclusive licensee of American underwear brand Jockey International for manufacture, distribution and marketing in countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, UAE, Oman and Qatar. During the quarter the company opened 80 new Exclusive Brand Outlets (EBO’s), taking the overall number to 873 supported by strong pent-up demand, lockdown relaxation, demand for winter wear, traction in athleisure wear and festival demand.  Most of Page’s store has now opened and witnessed double digit growth in demand. 

"Significant rise in demand from online sale (2 to 2.5time higher vs Q3FY20), provide better sales visibility. The management mentioned that demand for athleisure is better than inner wear during the quarter and kinds wear continues to be a key focus area of the company. We expect full recovery in business by Q4FY21," noted analysts at Geojit Financial Services in a results review report.

The brokerage expects demand for athleisure wear will continue due to current work from home environment. Besides, recovery in volumes and better margins are providing better visibility, they  say. "We expect the premium valuation to sustain due to healthy financial ratios and debt free status. Therefore, we maintain our Accumulate rating and value at a P/E of 63x on FY23 EPS," it said. The target price is at 34,205.