Everest Kanto Cylinders Ltd. - A long runway ahead!

Hydrogen is quite far away - for all companies. CNG is an existing opportunity which they are not able to capture… very poor management. like i said this stock have become a punter stock…

While the management of EKC is sleeping, competition is setting up new plants…

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Concall was such a huge waste of time. Ended before 30 mins. Management couldn’t answer beyond a few staccato; analysts couldn’t, therefore, ask anything substantial.

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This particular company has been chest thumping for a long time, it’s up to us to understand and act upon their messaging

dont know why they even have a call… they dont have answers for anything…
what i understand is that there is no compulsion for companies to have a investor call - then why do they even have it !!
promoter doesnt even know how much of capex company has been done… it is a small company… not a reliance…

Discl - have got fed up and exited.

Confidence and Time technoplast will be leaders in Type-4 cylinders…

So, in last 2 years we know who is pushing out of business. Management of EKC looks dodgy and a very respected PMS is invested in EKC, that’s why I am intrigued to find out what I am missing in EKC

Disc: Invested in Time Technoplast from 70 levels

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It seems there is no interest in EKC now!!
any idea if EKC has started producing composite cylinders. in one of the concalls they had mentioned they are working on composite tech.

and EKC managed to do quite badly again…
while competitors like Time Technoplast are doing phenomenally well - they have excess demand for composite cylinders. In one of the concalls, when a investor asked Mr. Puneet Khurana if they are looking at composite cylinders as a new product… he laughed it off - we have so much demand for our steel cylinders why should we make new products… wonder if there are any more ways in which the promoters can goof up…

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it seems rather than doing business EKC people are attending Hydrogen conferences where sales are negligible… looking at future and forgetting the present…

Very underwhelming results again. When revenue grows, PAT softens. Never an overall business growth. Not sure if anyone attended the analyst call, last time was disappointing.

Uncertainty is certain with this company.
If interest cost was not lower this year profits would have been even lower. ROCE is very low. and they have spent so much money in new plant in gujarat which has been stalled. if is is coming up or investors dont know- they dont update on anything.
As usual promoters are not very confident with numbers in the concall. dont have any answers to basic questions - what is surprising is they own 67% of the company and still are not bothered.
Investors have got fed up and even stopped attending calls. every time there are new investors on the calls - as the company keeps harping about Hydrogen cylinders - which is the buzzword… and then when investors realise there is no sales of hydrogen… they avoid.

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If you come here just for fun and only to crib about the company while staying invested in competition, probably your opinion is biased.

No offence. Just want to highlight that you could have offered a comparative snapshot between the two companies instead of just informing the forum that you moved your capital to another and are happy about it.

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Supplies to Bajaj seem to be very small right now. Once volumes pick up there will be other suppliers also. EKC will most likely lose out on this opportunity also.
In investing the most important criteria is management quality. Bad management will let go of all opportunities as in the case of EKC. And good management can create opportunities where there are few.
For the past few years, the management has been consistently saying the composite cylinders will not be competition - and while EKC had capability to make composite they chose not to. And companies like Time Techno and Supreme are making huge margins in composite cylinders and demand is exceeding capacity. EKC capacity utilisation is 60% !!

Wonder what happened to the new plant in Gujarat… there is no talk of it now.
Even the success of Egypt plant is doubtful. Capacity utilisation of Dubai plants is low - what will do with new plant in Egypt?

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Biggest issue with EKC is the management. Totally clueless. If it had a better management, EKC would have been a stock market da’ling.

What’s the basis of your statement that the supplies to Bajaj are small? You seem to be very well connected.

from the revenue cycle of the company , it looks like 3-5 years cycle . In FY13 onwards heavy debt and larger depreciation(almost 9-14% of rev) led to _ve PAT numbers . They sold off a good asset(Gandhi dham) for 120 cr of debt repayment . why? Is there not enough cashflow ? there are some erratic decisions on assets being sold. Recently the numbers looks great but ROCE and rev came down from FY23( 13% ROCE from 41% in fy22) . The co has almost 60% of current market cap as tangible cash and equivalents in balance sheet. what is the cyclicality looks like? FY24 seems to be 2nd year in the downcycle or is it the bottom for lower revenue?
kindly enlighten please.

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My sense is that , they might sell foreign subsidiary just like earlier in China and Thailand .Selling Gandhi Dham for debt repayment (120 cr) was not a great capital allocation strategy . there is negligence in C.G. But recent trend in balance sheet cleanup and prudent capital allocation might help the company!

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