Ppromoted by Kochouseph Chittilappily, V-Guard Industries manufactures and markets voltage stabilisers under the brand name, V-Guard. The product basket includes insulated electrical cables (for housing and industrial users), electric pumps, water heaters, solar water heaters, uninterrupted power suppliers (UPS) and fans. All the products are marketed und the V-Guard brand. The company has discontinued marketing water-level controllers, wall clocks, electric motor starters and water purifiers. About 42% of the revenue came from voltage stabilisers, 20% from cables, 19% from pumps, 7% from electric water heaters, 4% from solar water heaters, and 3% each from fans and UPS in the year ended March 2007 (FY 2007).
With a well-established position in south India, V-Guard Industries recently ventured into Maharashtra, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarpradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthan
Located at Comibatore in Tamilnadu, the facilities to build cables has a capacity to manufacture 1,38,000 coils per month of standard length of 90 meters. The remaining products are largely sourced from various suppliers and marketed under the V-guard brand. Supplies sourced include voltage stabilisers, pumps, UPS, electric water heaters and fans. These are manufactured to specifications.
To cater to rising demand, a second building-cable manufacturing plant is to be set up at Kashipur in Uttaranchal. It will have a capacity of 2,00,000 coils a month of standard length of 90 metres. Moreover, a low-tension cable manufacturing plant and an enameling plant, with a processing capacity of 100 tonnes, is to be put up at Coimbatore, where the existing building-cable unit is located. Development-cum-pilot plants are to be built at Coimbatore (for pumps) and in Himachal Pradesh (for fans and water heaters). Service and distribution centers are to be put up at strategic locations in India. All the projects are to be commissioned by December 2008. An initial public offer (IPO) will partially fund these expansion plans.
Strengths
The V-Guard brand enjoys strong recall and credibility, specially in south India.
Weakness
A regional player, with over 90% of the revenue (in FY 2007) coming from southern states and Goa. Of this, around 44% is derived from the market in Kerala. As has ventured into the north Indian markets recently, there will be no benefit of the strong brand name for leverage on. Thus, has to face strong competition from established players apart from small players
Valuation
Sales clocked a CAGR of 19% to Rs 222.27 crore in FY 2007 from FY 2003. Pofit after tax posted a CAGR of 29% to Rs 13.50 crore. The reported profit was Rs 18.41 crore in FY 2007,after accounting for an EO income of Rs 4.91 crore on account of profit on sale of investment in two amusement parks at Cochin and Bangalore. The EPS on adjusted net profit excluding EO was Rs 4.5 on post-IPO equity for FY 2007. The five-month annualised EPS for the current year on post-IPO equity works out to Rs 6. On the offer price of Rs 80-Rs 85, the P/E works out 17.8 – 18.9 times FY 2007 earning and 13.3 – 14.1 times latest five-month annualised EPS. Much larger players with much more well known brands like Finolex Cables and Bajaj Electric trade around TTM P/E of 16 times. Numeric Power, leader in UPS, trades at TTM P/E of 11 times.