Moser Baer Ltd
BSE Code: 517140
Book Value: Rs.100.02
Market Cap: Rs.1276.60 Cr
Dividend: 6%

Recently, the company has transformed itself from a single business into a multi-technology organisation, diversifying into exciting areas of Solar Energy, Home Entertainment and IT Peripherals & Consumer Electronics. Moser Baer has a presence in over 82 countries, serviced through six marketing offices in India, the US, Europe and Japan, and has strong tie-ups with all major global technology players. Moser Baer has the distinction of being preferred supplier to all top global OEM brands.
Shareholing Pattern: The promoters hold 16.17%, while the public holding is 83.71%.
Financials: Revenue for FY09 stood at Rs.23, 924.4 million, profit before depreciation, interest, exceptional items and tax stood at Rs.4, 530.3 million and losses after tax was Rs.1, 508.7 million. Turnover was impacted during the year by the difficult economic environment, partially offset by weakening of Rupee. The Company was able to hold its operating margin through production efficiencies and control on working capital. The Company continues to generate gross cash flow and the same was Rs.3, 462.8 million in FY09.
Triggers:
- Moser Baer launched a digital video processing and authoring facility in Chennai. Moser Baer announced successful trials of first Gen 8.5 Thin Film plant.
- The company will set up one of India's largest rooftop solar PV Installations in Surat.
- The Company continues to focus on both extension of geographic reach in emerging growth markets as well as on development & growth of new customer accounts across major product lines globally to cement its leading position on storage media. These efforts will renew focus following the recent royalty settlement and resultant increased levels of Business certainty.
- Moser Baer signed exclusive home video licensing deal with UTV Motion Pictures. The company concluded a strategic tie-up with LDK Solar.
- Moser Baer's thin film solar modules are now IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) certified. It also launched 600VA UPS with improved features for better performance, MP3 players, TFT Monitors, LCD TV, etc.
With the significant reduction in input costs, and relatively stable pricing, the optical media business is a strong cash generator for the group. - Moser Baer’s range of products makes it one of the world’s largest manufacturers and technology innovators in the optical media space. Its products are sold in 82 countries and it has six marketing offices in India, the US, Europe and Japan. In the Indian market, Moser Baer made its foray into the domestic optical storage market with the launch of the Moser Baer label in 2003. The company has blazed a new trail by introducing technologically innovative and truly world-class products in the Indian market.
- A notable development in 2008 was the emergence of Blu-Ray as the future high definition format, with Toshiba announcing the discontinuation of HD DVD investments. Blu-Ray offers a considerable increase in storage capacity with its 25 to 50 GB data capacity. Moser Baer, the first non-Japanese company to have developed its own technology for manufacturing Blu-Ray, stands to benefit from the exponential growth that will inevitably come in sales of advanced formats in the coming months. The company is set to leverage its R&D strengths to establish leadership position in terms of supply of Blu-Ray media for global consumption.
- The Company last year settled its long drawn licensing and patent dispute with Phillips. The amicable settlement has paved the way for Moser Baer to maintain and strengthen its market leadership position as the worlds leading manufacturer of optical storage media products.
- Moser Baer is also investing in nano technologies, which are in the R&D phase. This is a futuristic technology and because it will use very little material, it has the potential to bring down the cost of electricity generation considerably.
- The solar energy sector is increasingly realising its potential as a cost-effective alternative source of power. In the last fiscal, Moser Baer Photovoltaic Limited has consolidated its production facilities by installing 80 MW Module line and 80 MW Cell line manufacturing capacity. The cumulative efforts have resulted in it achieving a growth of more than 100% over FY08. Despite an increasingly difficult environment for Solar especially in 3rd & 4th quarter of the year, as the credit market froze, it continued to execute its strategy to make the Company, a global provider of high quality solar solutions. While the solar industry has grown astonishingly over last decade, however, it is still in a nascent stage of growth. Market structures differ between countries primarily on account of subsidies in place, ownership of installation, nature of customer and variability of grid connection. In FY09, Germany & Spain continued to dominate in Solar market and governments across the world have increasingly announced subsidies to promote renewable energy industry in general and solar, in particular.
- While the financial crisis has created a challenging environment in short term for the Industry, the fall in prices of Silicon and solar modules has helped the industry to accelerate towards grid parity and therefore, create greater opportunities for the company.
- The company would benefit from the following provision in the recent Budget:
(a) In FY11, the renewable energy plan outlay up by 61% at Rs.10 billion.
(b) To set up National Clean Energy Fund. Rs.5 billion has been set aside for the setting up solar and small hydro units.
(c) To set up 20, 000 MW of Solar Power by 2022.
(d) To waive excise duty on photovoltaic cells and solar panels.
Conclusion: Considering all the facts mentioned above it has been found that the scrip is highly undervalued and should move up in the days to come. Medium and long term investors can buy the scrip at any price above Rs.70 for a short term target of Rs.92. In the long term the scrip could make new highs and could cross Rs.200 in the days to come.
From the charts it has been that most of the parameters are in buy mode. Besides this the stock is in the highly oversold territory and a bounce is expected very soon.
Note: The stock (This report was also sent to them) was recommended to the Paid Groups in this Sunday (28th February, 2010) .