India Cements Q3 result: Loss of Rs 16.5 cr due to subdued demand

India Cements reported a loss for the third quarter on Thursday, hit by subdued demand due to a slow down in construction activity ahead of elections and cyclone in some states.

The southern India-focused cement maker reported a loss of 165.1 million rupees ($2 million) in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of 907.3 million rupees a year ago.

KEY CONTEXT

One of the market leaders in southern India, India Cements has been impacted by construction activity slowing down with the elections in Telangana, the cylone in Tamil Nadu, parts of Telangana and a moderated demand in the festival season.

Average cement prices also remained largely flat in the quarter, as muted volumes pressured cement companies to roll-back price hikes, analysts noted.

Larger peers UltraTech Cement, ACC and Dalmia Bharat, however, reported significant rise in their profits on strong infrastructure demand.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment

months) months)

RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to

growth growth rating* analysts price

target**

India Cements Ltd 36.60 13.64 NULL NULL Sell 1 1.67

JK Lakshmi Cement 14.65 10.12 10.84 28.08 Buy 11 1.10

Ltd

Ramco Cements 32.04 14.35 10.70 45.42 Hold 19 1.02

Limited

Nuvoco Vistas 36.37 9.19 6.73 49.70 Buy 17 0.90

Corporation Ltd

* Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

OCTOBER-DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 82.9700 Indian rupees