The shares of Bikaji Foods International escalated 25% in the past five days from ₹ 365.45 apiece to ₹ 466.80 to reach a new high on Friday’s early trades. Its shares hit the 5% upper circuit for five days in a row.
Bikaji Foods is one of India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (“FMCG”) brands. Its product range includes six principal categories: bhujia, namkeen, packaged sweets, papad and western snacks. In addition, it has other snacks which primarily include gift packs, frozen food, mathri and cookies.
The FMCG player debuted on the stock exchange on November 16, 2022, at a premium of 7.6% of the National Stock Exchange (NSE). It got listed at a price of ₹ 322.80 against the issue price of ₹ 300 per share. Since their listing, the shares gained 44.60%.
On December 06, 2022, the company announced the acquisition of Hanuman Agrofood Private Limited. Its board authorized officials to take necessary steps for availing the exercise of the ‘right of conversion’ of 28,13,050 compulsorily convertible cumulative preference shares into 28,13,050 equity shares held by the company in its name in the acquired company. This acquisition will help it leverage business opportunities in line with its plans.
The snacks maker, in its recent investor presentation, said that the company’s revenue was up 31.8% and its net profit was up 43.5% in the September quarter (Q2FY23) as against the same quarter last year. Further, its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was up 40.59% during the same period.
The company said that it has started servicing canteen store departments with a continued focus on strengthening its distribution network across India. It witnessed softening of raw material and packaging material prices in the September quarter over the previous quarter, resulting in an improvement in its gross margin by 3.07 bps quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to 27.4%.
Written by Simran Bafna
