JK Corp is promoted by the HS Singhania group. It
has two plants
with
an installed capacity of 2.4mn tonnes and is located at Sirohi
(Rajasthan).
The company sells cement under the brand name of JK
Lakshmi.
It produced 2.7 mn tonnes of cement in FY05 and have plans
to
expand capacity to 3.0mn tonnes by Dec'06.
Investment-argument
Capacity
enhancement by mid FY06 (production to grow at a CAGR of
10.2%)
– The company has earmarked a capex of Rs 400mn to be
deployed
in two phases to streamline its manufacturing process in
order
to improve its efficiency and reduce costs. This will enhance
clinkerisation
capacity by 5.3 lac tonnes per annum. The expansion
would
be funded partly by promoters and partly through internal
accruals
without any debt component. The planned expansion is in
line
with the company's aim to gain market share.
Captive
power plant to be commissioned in Dec'06 to save Re 1/unit –
JK
Corp is planning to float an SPV to set up a power plant of 36MW
at
its plant location in Rajasthan by Dec'06 at a cost of Rs.1400
mn.
The plant will meet JKC's entire power requirement and help it
to
reduce power cost by Rs 1/Kwh.
This
will not only reduce the production cost of the company but
will
also ensure efficient production. The savings from the power
plant
would be around Rs.200mn in FY08E.
Cost
cutting initiatives – In a scenario where the fuel and energy
cost
is on an upward trend, the company is continuously improving
its
power and energy consumption norms. Power consumption was
brought
down to 84 kwh/mn tonne of cement in FY05 by using increased
amount
of pet coke. We expect operating margins to improve given
reduced
cost due to higher volumes and improved power consumption
norms.
The cost cutting initiatives are part of JK Corp's strategy
to
become cost competitive.
Segregation
of investments to add Rs 31/share – The company has
moved
a proposal to segregate its cement business and investments so
as
to make the company totally focused on its core business. The
company
has total investments worth Rs.1,716mn as on Mar'05 which is
equivalent
to Rs 31/share.
Attractive valuation
At the current price of Rs78 the stock is trading at a P/E of 10.7x
FY06E,
18.3 x FY07E and 9.6x FY08E. EV/EBITDA of 11.4x FY06E, 9.2x FY07E
and 7x FY08E. EV/ton at US$79 FY06E, US$76 FY07E and US$69 FY08E. We
initiate coverage on the stock with an Outperformer rating.