Subex & Raymond Q4 results

CORPORATE SCORECARD

Subex, the telecom software products firm, has reported a net loss of Rs 50 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2008, as the cost of its recent acquisitions is proving to be a drag. It reported a profit of Rs 27.6 crore in the previous corresponding period.

During the last fiscal, it acquired Syndesis, a Canadian telecom products firm, worth more than $150 million (around Rs 600 crore). Subex relied on external resources to fund this deal.

 

Expenditure on account this has arisen by almost 59 per cent during the final quarter. Its topline for the quarter came down by 4 per cent to Rs 106.4 crore on account of a loss in other income at Rs 2 crore as against a gain of Rs 22 crore in the corresponding previous quarter.

Subash Menon, founding chairman and managing director, said, "While we had a bad year, we see momentum picking up in order intake. Further, the integration has resulted in expected annualised cost saving of $12 million."

The new order intake in FY08 was Rs 344 crore (Rs 188 crore).

For the full year, the company has posted a net loss of Rs 68.1 crore. It reported a gain of Rs 67.5 crore in the last financial year. This has been attributed to the doubling of personnel cost from Rs 207 crore in 2007 to Rs 407 core in 2008 and to the increase in interest payout by four times to Rs 32 crore. Resulting in an operating loss for the full year at Rs 61.7 crore.

Net sales, however, has gone up by 45.7 per cent to Rs 540 crore in FY08.

Raymond PAT jumps 98% in Q4

Apparel major Raymond reported a total income growth of 25 per cent at Rs 445.01 crore for the quarter ended on March 2008, compared with Rs 357.09 crore in the corresponding previous quarter.

Net profit after tax (PAT) for the quarter grew by 98 per cent to Rs 21.17 crore (Rs 10.68 crore).

Profit before tax for the quarter grew by 6 per cent at Rs 30.52 crore (Rs 28.84 crore).

The branded apparel subsidiaries of the company continued their strong sales growth during the quarter and have grown by 39 per cent over the previous year.

According to Gautam Hari Singhania, CMD, Raymond, "The textile market continues to be buoyant and to capitalise on the emerging opportunities, the systems and processes at Raymond underwent an unprecedented change. This transition to the ERP environment resulted in initial internal impediments and we recouped some of our missed opportunities during the last quarter. We are confident therefore that these issues are behind us now, which should reflect on both our topline and bottomline numbers during the next year. Our apparel businesses continue blazing on a high growth trail. We have been and continue to judiciously expand our retail penetration. All this augurs well for the future of Raymond."