Himatsingka balance sheet changes hues cooling cotton prices help

Himatsingka Seide, the Bangalore-based publicly-held company which focusses on home furnishings, has reported a net profit of Rs 11.2 crore for the third quarter of FY12 compared to a loss of Rs 8 crore during the corresponding quarter of previous year. According to the company, it was hit by high prices of cotton during the corresponding previous quarter, the prices of which has since cooled down, leading to the company being in the black.

“The price of cotton candy (one cotton candy is 356 kg) which was at Rs 23,000, shot up to the range of Rs 50,000-Rs 60,000 during the third and fourth quarter of FY11, which hit us severely. The prices have since cooled down around 40 per cent and is now at Rs 35,000 which has helped us to a large extent to help us post profits. In addition to this, the Christmas sales in the US and Europe where a majority of our sales happen has been good during the third quarter which has boosted our topline,” a company spokesperson told Business Standard. The total income at Rs 401 crore was up by as much as 35 per cent and the Rupee depreciation too helped its cause as its PBT too turned green at Rs 15.4 crore as against a loss of Rs 4.7 crore.

The company, which runs the upmarket furnishing boutique in India under the brand — Atmosphere, has now almost recovered from the derivatives contracts it had entered into. Himatsingka has a net debt of Rs 676 crore with a gearing of 1.17 times and the company is looking at options to raise Rs 150 crore to address the mid-market furnishings segment.

“We have the shareholder approval to raise up to Rs 150 crore through a QIP, but with markets being volatile, we are not rushing into that. We are looking at other options to raise this resource if the markets do not stabilise and we will take a call on that post a couple of more quarters of delivering growth,” the spokesperson added.