Moser Baer loss widens to Rs 121 crore in April-June quarter
Markets should break out on the upside after consolidating for the past three weeks. Global sentiment and positive FII flows to drive up stocks in the week ahead. Markets are exhibiting strong resilience in the face of strong headwinds.
Hit by foreign exchange losses, compact disk maker Moser Baer India's (MBI) net loss has widened to Rs 121.9 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, from Rs 92.21 crore in the same period last year.
"The current quarter exceptional items pertains to exchange loss of Rs 51.33 crore on account of erstwhile long term foreign currency liabilities," MBI Group Chief Financial Officer Yogesh Mathur said.
The company's total income from operations dipped to Rs 471.65 crore for the reported quarter as against Rs 545.4 crore in the April-June 2011 quarter.
"The first quarter is generally a dull quarter. However, we have witnessed stable operating performance during the quarter. Margins were relatively stable and cash from operations stood at Rs 88 crore. We expect further improvement in the coming quarters with enhanced liquidity," Mathur said.
He added that the company would see growth in the coming quarter on the back of strong growth in blu-ray and solid state storage products.
"The growth in advanced format sales is likely to continue in the coming quarters. Cost reduction measures have resulted in significant improvement in operational efficiency and overall cost benefit for us," Mathur said.
Solid state media market continues to grow at over 15 per cent and MBI is well positioned to participate in this growth, he added.
The Indian USB drive market aggregated to a total market size of Rs 470 crore in 2011, while the flash card market was about Rs 760 crore in size.
According to estimates, during 2010-2018, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to remain the most important market for storage media products, such as HD DVDs, Blu-ray discs and flash memory products like USB flash drives.
Global shipments of solid state media expected to reach 937 million units in 2014 (from 688 million units in 2010).
During the quarter, photovoltaic (PV) systems division of MBI commissioned 1.25 MW crystalline silicon project in Madhya Pradesh.
"We witnessed an uptick in new business in this quarter and expect an increase in interest in the coming quarters, driven by demand from European and Japanese customers," Mathur said.
Industry estimates suggest that the fastest PV capacity growth over next five years expected in China and India, followed by Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa.
"The expected pipeline for systems business is about 50MW in the next 12-15 months," Mathur said.
