Downgrades

JK Paper Ltd.'s (JK Paper) Q1FY26 result was broadly in-line with estimates on net sales and EBITDA front, while net profit was below our forecast. The Company's core business in Paper and Paper Board continued to face headwinds from cheap imports resulting in depressed sales realization and ongoing high domestic wood prices weighed on operating margin. Despite this, JK Paper improved its profits on a sequential basis. The management believes that packaging conversion business is amongst the fastest growing segments in the Indian Paper and Packaging industry driven by growth in end use industries....

JK Paper Ltd.'s (JK Paper) Q4FY25 result was broadly in-line with estimates on key parameters. The company reported improved performance on a sequential basis led by higher volume and cost optimization. However, on YoY basis the earnings were subdued, reflecting underline pain in NSR and raw material cost. The management attributed weak earnings to surge in imports at low prices and high wood cost. During Q4FY25, the Company acquired 60% of the Equity Shares of Radhesham Wellpack Private Limited (RWPL) and 62.14% of Equity Shares of Quadragen Vethealth Private Limited (QVPL). We have fine-tuned earnings...

Higher sales volume and improved NSR aided net sales growth Despite challenging business environment, JK Paper's sales volume was at 104,841MT, a growth of 32% YoY. The company reported NSR improvement of 7% YoY to Rs63,029/MT led by higher packaging board and coated paper prices. Sirpur plant has gained traction during Q1FY22 and it would reach at 100% capacity expansion by Q4FY22E or Q1FY23E. Packaging board unit will be operational in Q3FY21E and would have meaningful contribution to net sales in FY23E. Operating leverage and cost cutting led to robust EBITDA margin expansion...

JK Paper Ltd.'s Q3FY21 result was in-line with our estimates on net sales and EBITDA front, while higher than anticipated interest cost led net profit below our forecast. Net sales declined by 9.6% YoY to Rs7,423mn, while EBITDA came in at Rs1,552mn, down by 32.7% YoY. The company reported net profit of Rs646mn, lower by 51% over Q3FY21. The management attributed net sales decline to sharp degrowth in net sales realization (NSR) on account of subdued demand for PWP in Q3FY21. On a positive note, higher global pulp prices and demand revival in the domestic market from beginning of Q4FY21 has led to increase in NSR. Sirpur plant is now operational and should contribute to net sales in next...

West Coast Paper Mills Ltd (WCPL), incorporated in 1955 is the flagship company of S.K. Bangur group. The company is among India's top five paper & paper board's manufacturer in terms of total capacity of 320000 mtpa. WCPL operates in two business segments; Paper/Paperboard (including Duplex Board) at Dandeli and Telecommunication Cables at Mysore. The company also has Wind Mills of 1.75MW capacity in Tamilnadu for power generation. WCPL has a share of 10% in the domestic uncoated paper market. WCPL has derived 95.39% of its revenue...

JK Paper Ltd.'s Q4FY20 result was higher on net sales/EBITDA front, while PAT came in-line with our estimates. Net sales declined by 9.5% YoY to Rs7,302 mn. EBITDA came in at Rs1,817 mn, down by 17% YoY, while EBITDA margin eroded by 220bps over Q4FY19 to 24.9%. The company reported net profit of Rs914 mn, down by 18.6% YoY. For full year, the company reported net sales of Rs30.6bn, down by 6% YoY. EBITDA came in at Rs8.7bn, up by 0.4%, while EBITDA margin improved by 180bps to 28.5% over FY19. JK's total PAT stood at Rs4.6bn, a healthy growth of 10.2% YoY. COVID-19 would have a long term impact on sales volume led by closure of plants and...

JK Paper Ltd (JKP) reported PAT of INR 120 crore in Q3FY19, up 72.3% y-o-y and 8.5% from our estimate mainly due to better-than-expected improvement in gross margin.

Revenues were flat at Rs 3,158m both YoY and QoQ due to volume decline of 10.5% YoY and 1.8% QoQ at 71,099 tons. Newsprint (NP) volumes dip by 53.3% to 5,333 tons. During the quarter, Unit II was shut down for 30 days for plant upgradation to Writing & Printing (W&P;) business,...

JK Paper (JKP) leads the Indian copier paper market (with a 23% share); it is also the 2nd largest player in the coated paper segment (16%) and the 5th largest in packaging board (11%).