Conference Call with Dhanuka Agritech Management and Analysts on Q4FY20 and Full Year Earnings Performance and Outlook. Listen to the full earnings transcript.
Call Participants: M K Dhanuka - MD, Rahul Dhanuka - Director of Marketing, VK Bansal - CFO
Introductory remarks from M K Dhanuka
Good evening ladies and gentlemen! Hope you are all doing well and keeping safe. We welcome all of you to discuss the Q4 and full year FY20 audited results of Dhanuka Agritech Limited. As you are aware that Dhanuka Agrutech is a leading agro chemical company in India, the company’s strength lies in the formulated products. The product’s portfolio is largely distributed across insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. Insecticides contribute a significant portion of the overall revenues and the company aims to ramp up in the fast growing herbicide segments.
Dhanuka Agritech is aggressively working towards the goal of transforming India through agriculture by initiatives such as doubling farmers' income. We cater to all major crops in India and have implemented the best in plan technology to ensure a smooth and efficient supply chain. We have adopted the rural FMCG model to service the diversity of Indian crops and needs of farmers. The company has a wide range of portfolios. We have a pan India presence through our marketing offices in all major states across India. The three manufacturing units with 40 warehouses at a net worth of 414 branches, the Indian geography caters to about 7,000 distributors and dealers and around 80,000 retailers.
Dhanuka has more than 1500 technical staff supported by a strong R&D division and a robust network distribution to reach out to approximately 10 million Indian farmers’ touch point with its products and services. Dhanuka Agritech’s R&D division has attributed laboratories and has international collaboration with 9 leading global agro chemical companies from the US, Japan and Europe which helped us to introduce the latest technology in Indian farmland.
Revenue from operations during Q4FY20 was Rs 227.57 crore, representing an increase of 18% over the corresponding period last year which was Rs 192.72 crore
EBITDA stood at Rs 45.78 crore in Q4FY20, up 39% YoY and it was Rs 173.47 crores in FY20, up 19% over last year. EBITDA margin improved from 17.1% in Q4FY19 to 20.1% in Q4FY20 and improved from 14.5% in FY19 to 15.5% in FY20.
Profit after Tax was at Rs 39 crore in Q4FY20, up 46% compared to the corresponding period, last year and it was Rs 145.7 crore in FY20, up 26% YoY basis. PAT margin improved from 13.9% in Q4FY19 to 17.1% in Q4FY20 and it grew from 11.2% in FY19 to 12.6% in FY20.
The Board of Directors have declared a 600% interim dividend that is Rs 12 per equity share having face value of Rs 2 per share. The board has decided to keep the interim dividend as its final dividend.
The zone wise turnover for the financial year ended March 31, 2020 was - North India at 25%, East India at 11%, West India 33% and South India at 31%.
Category wise, share of insecticides was 43%, fungicides was 16%, herbicides was 31% and others 11%
As per IMD reports, last year's monsoon was normal in the country and expected the same in the coming year which has brought a smile on the faces of the farmers. The monsoon onset on 1st June in Kerala and is progressing very fast to the other states of Karnataka, Goa and other states.
As per FY2020 data, the total summer crop area has increased to 52.75 lakh hectare from 38.64 lakh hectare as compared to the corresponding period, a year ago
In view of the nationwide lockdown announced by the government of India on March 24, 2020 to control the spread of Covid-19, the company’s operations were temporarily distrubed at manufacturing facilities and sales depots across the country. This resulted in partial deferment of company’s revenue from the month of March, last year to the first quarter of FY21.
The company has resumed operations in a phased manner from the beginning of April as per government directives. Dhanuka Agritech has implemented various measures to protect employees, communities and operations to ensure supply chain was not impacted.
We also encouraged non-critical operations to work from home and carry out interactions electronically. The company adheres to social distancing norms across sites and the staff is encouraged to maintain 2 metres distance from the other workers and stakeholders operating in and around the site.
The company encourages the vendors, suppliers, distributors to ensure that there is a minimum impact on business operations. The pandemic is expected to slow down overall business activity across different sectors in India. However, as our product falls under the essential category, we do not foresee any major impact to the business due to coronavirus pandemic.
Although it is expected that the GDP degrowth may be to the extent of 3-5% in India in FY21, it is expected that GDP growth will be around more than 3% from the agriculture sector. Hence relationships with the local manufacturers and the distributors have had the company sustain inventory in the pipeline during the lockdown period from March to May 2020.
The company will work towards engaging with all the participants across the value chain both upstream and downstream to deliver a strong season and build a solid momentum for the remaining part of FY21.