India Cements posts wider Q2 loss as prices hit 5-year lows

India Cements

08/11/2024 08:10

Nov 8 (Reuters) - India Cements  ICMN.NS  reported a bigger second-quarter loss on Friday as prices fell to
five-year lows.
    The company, majority-owned by market leader UltraTech Cement  ULTC.NS , said its consolidated loss swelled to
3.39 billion rupees ($40.2 million) in the July to September quarter, from 855.4 million rupees a year earlier. 
    For further earnings highlights, (click here)
    
    KEY CONTEXT
    The industry has struggled with low prices and demand failing to recover from the previous quarter, when
elections had slowed construction activity.
    Still, cement makers are upbeat about demand in the long run and are ramping up capacity and intensifying
dealmaking.
    Last month, UltraTech flagged early signs of a price recovery after reporting a sharp drop in its second-quarter
profit and its first revenue decline in four years.
    
    PEER COMPARISON    
    
                                 Valuation (next 12    Estimates (next 12         Analysts' sentiment       
                                       months)              months)                                         
                      RIC        PE        EV/EBITDA  Revenue     Profit    Mean     # of     Stock to      Div
                                                      growth (%)  growth    rating*  analyst  price         yield
                                                                  (%)                s        target**      (%)
 India Cements         ICMN.NS     127.66      24.94     5.52               Sell           5      1.43          0.00
 Orient Cement         ORCE.NS      28.78      13.03     6.12      21.82    Sell           7      1.39          0.66
 Ramco Cements         TRCE.NS      38.51      13.58     8.44      32.55    Hold          19      0.99          0.29
 Dalmia Bharat         DALB.NS      32.53      11.11     7.58      24.11    Hold          26      0.89          0.50
 
* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading
above the PT
    
JULY-SEPTEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE 
    
    
-- All data from LSEG
-- $1 = 84.3660 Indian rupees    

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ICMN Q2 vs peers    https://tmsnrt.rs/3YUvBYK
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 (Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
 ((Hritam.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @MukherjeeHritam;))