Murli Industries Ltd:-Future growth prospects and outlook

Scripscan:Murli Industries Ltd
cmp:217
Code:519323

Story:Nagpur-based Murli Industries is into solvent extraction, paper and power and is now getting into cement. The first three are highly profitable businesses now, while cement too is a great long-term story. Newsprint prices are shooting up and paper manufacturers have just announced a hike in different varieties of paper.Murli produces a wide range of paper products like duplex, newsprint and printing paper, creamwove and maplitho. Duplex paper is used in making duplex paperboard for packaging. The major customers of Murli are Philips India, Ranbaxy, Dabur and Haldiram Foods, and garment brands – Dollar and Lux. Its customers of newsprint (21,000 tonnes of capacity) are also big names like Dainik Bhaskar, Dainik Jagran, Rajasthan Patrika, Enadu, Sakal, etc, while the clientele for writing paper includes Western Press, Sundaram Multipap, Navneet Publications, Thomson Press, Orient Press, Hindustan Lever and Godrej.Demand for writing and printing paper is on the rise, leading to price increase. Murli expects the robust demand and strong price environment to continue.Murli’s other business is doing even better. Refined soy oil and its by-product de-oiled cakes are highly profitable now, thanks to price inflation in the edible oil market (witness KS Oils and Sanwaria Agro Oils). Murli sells ‘micro refined triple filtered’ edible oil under the brand name Rasila. De-oiled cake is used mainly as cattle- and poultry-feed. With increasing demand for poultry and dairy products, the demand for high-protein food for cattle and poultry is rising. Apart from domestic sales, Murli exports its de-oiled cake to The Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. A big cost-saver has been its 18MW captive power plant which takes care of all the paper plants and has reduced its electricity cost to Rs1.85 per unit compared to over Rs4 for power received from the state grid. A drain on Murli’s resources will be its diversification – the three million tonne cement plant that it is setting up (with a 48MW captive power plant) at Chandrapur, Maharashtra.Murli suffered a fire in its factory on 30 April 2008, destroying the raw material stored in the open compound of the factory. This led to a sharp fall in the stock price last year. But now some of the losses has crystallised and the market seems to have factored it in somewhat with the scrip hitting daily circuits, the stock still would be worth considering for the long term but at dips.