Moser Baer: Fiscal 3Q14 Financial Results

Moser Baer India Limited released its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2014.

The company’s board of directors, at its meeting in New Delhi, approved the financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2014.

• Total income stood at INR 2,728 million during the quarter, affected by short term liquidity challenges
• Production volumes increased by 2.45% to meet the future order book
• Demand and ASPs during the quarter continued to be affected by the ongoing reshuffle in the global optical media industry
• Moser Baer’s solar vertical became the first and only high technology brand from India to achieve business of over INR 2,000 million in Japan in a 12 month time frame
• A 5MW solar farm was commissioned for a prestigious PSU, enabling it to achieve its annual green power target.

Talking about the company’s storage media business and strategy, Bhaskar Sharma, CEO, storage media, said: “Liquidity constraints continued to impact the revenues in storage media business during the quarter and significant order backlog was carried into the next quarter. The response to the pilot phase of LED business is very positive, helping the company to position itself well in the rapidly growing energy efficient lighting market.”

Trends in storage media business

• Net sales stood at INR 2,666.0 million during the quarter.
• Key raw material costs remained stable during the quarter.
• Strong order visibility in next two quarters.
• Continuing focus on consolidation of operations and cost reduction initiatives started to drive results.

K N Subramaniam, CEO, said: “Key regulatory developments on domestic content and expected announcements on the anti dumping duty case augur well for solar PV manufacturing in India. Despite current constraints, our manufacturing unit continued to service select customers in the highly quality conscious Japanese market, and set new benchmarks for exports to this critical market.”

Trends in the solar photovoltaic business

• During the period Apr. 13-Mar. 14, Moser Baer Solar exported approx. 43.5MW of modules to the Japanese market valued at $34.5mn. The company became the first and only high technology brand from India to achieve this milestone in a 12 month time frame
• Moser Baer Solar continued to maintain its leading position in the solar EPC segment. With the commissioning of the 5MW solar project for a prestigious PSU in January 2014, the cumulative projects executed till date is over 260MW across different PV technologies and terrains in India.
• Liquidity pressures continue to persist and have been impacting our ability to enhance production volumes. Company in discussion with banks for release of liquidity aligned with regulatory and market developments.
• Global prices of polysilicon, wafers and cells have broadly remained stable, as markets witness better supply demand equilibrium.
• Moser Baer Solar bagged a Rooftop Solar PV project from a prestigious PSU in New Delhi, for completion by Sep.14.
• After initial foray in Kerala for Rooftop Projects, the company is now in the list of approved bidders at highest price in Tamil Nadu 1KW program as well.
• Focus on cost reduction continues, with particular emphasis on rightsizing of the organization, power costs and other operating costs.

Summing up the financial results, Yogesh Mathur, group president and group CFO, said: “Despite the liquidity constraints, Moser Baer continues to remain one of the leading players in the global storage media industry and domestic solar PV EPC business. The company continued to witness financial constraints and resultant supply chain bottlenecks that affected its operating performance.”