Capital Market : Abbott India (AIL)

 

           Abbott India (AIL) is merging Solvay India with itself after getting requisite approvals. Post-merger, Abbott + Solvay would emerge to be a major pharma player. This growth oriented merger is expected to create competitive business structure strengthening leadership in terms of large asset base, increased revenues spread across diverse range of products / therapies, and higher market share in certain niches.

 

           Abbott India Ltd. provides healthcare solutions through its 4 business units:

 

          Primary Care – Pain Management, Gastroenterology, with well-known brands like Brufen, Digene, and Cremaffin.

          Specialty Care – Metabolic & Urology solutions in Thyroid, Obesity, Diabetes (including distribution of Novo Nordisk’s Insulin) and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia.

          Specialty Care – Neurology (mainly Anti-Epileptic) and Psychiatric segments

          Hospital Care – Anesthesiology and Neo-natology, viz., Forane, Sevorane and Survanta

           Solvay Pharma India Ltd. focuses on:

          Women’s Health (Calcium & Vitamin D deficiencies, Infertility, Gynaecological disorders, HRT, Pre-term labour management,

          Mental Health (Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorders, Vertigo,

          Gastroenterology (IBS, Abdominal pain, Constipation (laxative), Intestinal disorders,  Pancreatic insufficiency, Inflammatory Bowel diseases, Cholestatic Liver diseases,

          ENT (Allergic Rhinitis, Nasal spray, etc.)

          Vaccines (Influvac – to prevent Influenza) and

          General (Iodine disorders, Musculoskeletal conditions)

 

           Thus, both companies have very complementary product portfolio with very little overlap.  At present, teams of Medical Reps(MR’s) ( 1400 of Abbott + 500 of Solvay) are undergoing re-structuring in terms of re-defined geographies, therapies, doctor coverage etc., to present a unified face before the outside world. If required, company may add some MR’s to fill the gaps in different pockets. After strengthening their presence in Tier I and II cities and towns, plans are afoot for further penetration into smaller markets.

 

           Both companies will continue with new product launches even during the intervening period. At present, there are no plans to launch any new R&D based molecule from the parent. At least for the next couple of years, company will have new launches in the form of branded generics, line extensions, combinations, etc.

 

           AIL will continue to market Novo Nordisk’s Insulin, which contributes around 48% to Abbott’s net sales of ~ Rs 990 crore for 13 months ended Dec 2010, but earns just 4-5% distribution margin. Both Novo and Abbott are happy about this arrangement. The demand for  insulin is growing owing to increasing no. of people taking diabetic treatment.

 

           In December 2010, there were virtually no sales efforts. This was an exceptional decision taken by the management, as integration efforts had to take place at some point in time, before actual marriage took place between two companies.

 

           Sales growth in 2011 will be higher than market rate of growth, as now company has several new therapies under its fold and hence, can do much more effective doctor detailing with expanded resources.

 

           Significant investment in marketing, increased field force and new launches have caused a dent in the profitability of Abbott, where due to integration related activities, the month of December 2010 saw a loss. Investment phase will continue for a year or so, which is usual for a company on an accelerated growth path.

 

           Post investment phase, profitability margin is expected to improve from higher business volumes, business synergies, standardization & simplification of business processes, productivity improvement etc. Apart from cost saving by avoiding duplication and other administrative matters, both companies jointly will have bigger and deeper presence in the market.

 

           Abbott (+) Solvay combined have plans to grow at ~ 20% + per annum against pharma market growth of 16% per annum. Increased profitability will see bottom-line improvement of 25% + for the next 2-3 years.

 

           Post merger, the parent company’s stake will increase from the present 68.94% to 76.04%. At present, there is no plan to de-list Abbott. The parent company is very focused on India as reflected in this decision to merge two listed companies and its earlier acquisition of Piramal Healthcare’s domestic formulations business and tie up with Zydus Cadilla for marketing branded generics.

 

           Both companies are cash-rich with December 2010-end cash & equivalents worth Rs 188 crore in Abbott and Rs 88 crore in Solvay aggregating to Rs 276 crore (= Rs 130/- per share). Going ahead, unfettered access to cash flows generated by combined businesses can be deployed to fund organic and inorganic growth initiatives.

 

           Expected EPS for CY11 is Rs.70 and the EPS projection for CY12 is Rs.90.  On P/E side, the stock looks a little pricey, but its trailing EV / Sales multiple (after eliminating trading sales from insulin, etc.) is much lower at 3.3 times and represents a GOOD long-term BUY.

 

CMC Limited

 

CMC Ltd., a subsidiary of TCS (The largest IT company in the country by revenue), is an end-to-end IT Solutions provider with capabilities across the entire IT spectrum; deriving revenues from Customer Services, Systems Integration (SI), IT enabled Services (ITeS) and Education & Training horizontals.

 

The Company has completed a business transformation process thru FY 2011 by reducing its earlier over exposure from the less profitable hardware business (as part of customer services business) to the more of value-added software services & solutions. It is moving away from being largely a government vendor (now contributes just 1/3rd of total revenue) to more of private sector and international assignments. The Company’s focus will now be to grow more profitable, value-added businesses at faster rate in SI and ITeS comprising of Embedded Software, Data Digitisation, Workflow Management and Large Scale Complex Infrastructure Management assignments.

 

With the increased focus, business from international markets is expected to contribute to 50% of total revenue from the current 15 % from SI & ITeS businesses. Embedded software, digitisation and workflow management in different verticals will drive rapid growth in international market. Besides advanced markets of North America and Europe, the company is actively pursuing new business opportunities from SAARC, Middle East and African countries, where its core banking, insurance and trading / depository solutions will have bigger market.

 

Growth in India will come from infrastructure, e-governance, BFSI, Mobile Technology, Retail market, Cloud Computing, etc.

 

CMC works along with TCS on several assignments. Presently, about 47-48% of CMC’s revenue comes thru TCS, which does front running and leverages CMC’s strengths. This is a unique business model and a key differentiator for CMC and its clients. The combo is well placed to take opportunities in Indian market particularly in e-governance space where IT penetration is low. While CMC works on infrastructure management with end-to-end perspective, TCS is into remote infrastructure management. CMC provides software support, roll-out, infrastructure management, etc.

 

Company plans to leverage its customised solutions which provide huge opportunity under cloud computing, in ITeS and solutions businesses. Company believes that approx. 10% of IT business will move to cloud computing. It will increase penetration and much longer revenue stream through long-term arrangements & more of annuity nature of business. This also brings down sales cycle. CMC can thus leverage its repertoire of IPR developed across different verticals like BFSI, Ports & Logistics, Biometrics, and host of such applications. Monetization of these IPR assets, including thru Cloud, will likely to substantially add to revenue and profits as it will provide its prospective clients an advantage of going quick to market.

 

The Company has also set up 100% SEZ on ~ 49 acres of land in Hyderabad for combined use by TCS and CMC. On top of Rs 159 crore capex spent on this SEZ till FY 2011 for initial phases, company plans to incur further capex of Rs 246 crore in FY 2012 and more than Rs 100 crore in FY 2013. SEZ will enable CMC to scale up its operations at pretty high levels. It will also augment rental income received from TCS to Rs 25 crore in FY 12 (Rs 12 crore in FY 11), as additional space is allotted to TCS. 

 

During FY 2011, total revenues grew @ 24% to Rs 1,081 crore led by 22.5% increase in SI at Rs 577.34 crore and 54.3% jump in ITeS turnover to Rs 169.65 crore. 80 clients were added in FY 2011 taking total client base to 850 clients (domestic – 700 & international– 150, mainly in USA).  EBIDTA margin increased to 19.1% (18.6%). Company added 1,845 people in FY 11. PAT was up by 25.3% to Rs 179.4 crore (Rs 143.2 crore). CMC is cash rich company having surplus cash & equivalents of Rs 283 crore (Rs 186.80 per share) as on March 31, 2011.

 

The management has a very clear vision for the coming years in terms of the business prospects of its joint offerings with TCS; and is confident about doing well. It will increase growth momentum and achieve the minimum software industry growth rate. Future hiring plan will be dovetailed with types of assignments received so that fixed costs do not increase much.

 

In the years ahead, the company expects profit growth to come from revenue growth (mainly volume growth) and maintain EBIDTA margin at FY 11 level. Accordingly, existing business is expected to grow @ CAGR of 20% (+). In addition, Cloud computing will become major growth driver in 2-3 years time.

 

Withdrawal of tax break under STPI scheme having come to end in FY 11, and as existing contracts running in STPI cannot be transferred to new SEZ, company’s effective tax rate will increase from 15% in FY 11 to 25% in FY 12 and will get back to 15% level from FY 13 onwards as by then, all new contracts will become operational from SEZ.

 

Consolidated EPS (actual) for FY11 has been at Rs.118.4 and projected EPS for FY12 is Rs.127.60. Considering very good future prospects and strong backing by TCS, we recommend to “BUY” the share at CMP, which is on a cum bonus basis as the company has announced a 1:1 bonus.