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The year book: Highs and lows of 2014's Hidden Gems
It's been a year of highs and lows for our batch of 2014. We take a look at their report card
BIKAJI FOODS
Bikaji Foods International’s only impediment to growth—inability to produce in volumes large enough to keep up with the demand—will be removed later this year when the Rs 490 crore Bikaner-based snack maker introduces a new production line at its factory to increase capacity by 60 percent. Besides, the company is launching a healthier snack line and planning to expand its footprint both in India and abroad. Bikaji estimates its revenues will touch Rs 700 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 1,000 crore by 2018-19, when it will start looking at a fresh round of funding for further expansion.
Khadim’s footwear retail chain has clocked a revenue of Rs 460 crore in FY15, up from Rs 425 crore in FY13. It has opened 31 new stores in the first quarter of FY16. Aiming to be a pan India player, it also recently produced a new TV commercial to establish Khadim’s as a national brand. The commercial was aired on leading news channels across the nation along with the rollout of new stores opened in different regions of India.
Medanta, the group that owns the multi-specialty hospital Medanta—The Medicity in Gurgaon has been on an expansion spree. This February, it opened a hospital in Indore, which, it says, is “an extension of its flagship hospital in Gurgaon”. In July, Medanta took over Abdur Razzaque Ansari Memorial Weavers’ Hospital in Ranchi and won a bid to open a super-specialty hospital in Patna on a public-private partnership. The company has also signed an MoU with Doha’s Humanis Group to set up a super-specialty hospital in Qatar.
Silicon Valley-based outsourced product development company GlobalLogic is on course to touch the $500-million revenue mark by FY18. Of that, about $50-75 million will be added through acquisitions in Europe. Controlled by private equity major Apax Partners, GlobalLogic reported $285 million in revenue at the end of FY15, a 15 percent growth over the previous fiscal. Over the last 12 months, the company has signed at least six multimillion-dollar contracts with companies in the communication, medical, and retail sectors. In March, GlobalLogic strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Sumit Sood as its managing director in India.
The revenues of CitiusTech, a healthcare technology services and solutions provider, grew by 30 percent in the past year. It launched CQ-IQ, a cloud-hosted clinical rules engine to enable healthcare organisations accelerate their clinical quality reporting and analytics capabilities. CitiusTech has also announced healthcare Big Data practice during the year. The company celebrated its 10th anniversary by winning an award (given by the Great Places To Work Institute) for being one of the best places to work in India for the fourth year in a row.
The Delhi-based women’s ethnic wear brand opened 45 stores in FY2015. But for Managing Director Siddharath Bindra, the biggest achievement has been the success of its ecommerce portal Biba.in, which launched in October 2014 and now accounts for 3 to 4 percent of the turnover, twice of what he had originally expected. With revenues of Rs 570 crore in FY15, compared to Rs 420 crore in the previous year, and profits surpassing its target, the company is not looking to raise capital.
This family-run foundry in Lucknow, which moulds metal, had a mixed run in 2014-15. PTC exports—around 70 percent to Europe—were hit by a weak euro and sluggish demand. Revenues fell to Rs 100.77 crore in 2014-15, from Rs 122 crore a year earlier. But the firm has got listed at the BSE and struck a deal with a European firm for titanium casting technology, which would be introduced at its new factory in Lucknow in 2016.
Medi Assist, a third party administrator in the cashless insurance market, strengthened its automated systems, with about 50 percent of all its claims coming in electronically. This helped the Bengaluru-based company speed up the claim settlement process to one day, against five for paper-based claims. It also launched a mobile app where customers can track the status of their claims. Medi Assist is estimated to have reported a 25 percent rise in revenues in 2014-15 over the previous year.
It has been a mixed year for Magicrete, the construction materials maker that specialises in light-weight cement blocks. While the Surat-based company experienced 25 percent growth in the volume of sales, its sales value growth lagged below that mark after increased competition pushed down prices. Revenues in 2014-15 were Rs 145 crore, a marginal improvement over its previous year’s revenues of Rs 135 crore. Sourabh Bansal, co-founder and managing director, rued that the real estate industry hasn’t been bright, “but times seem to be changing with ‘Housing For All’ and ‘Smart Cities’ schemes”. Magicrete built toilets in 500 girls’ schools under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
It has been a challenging year for Bengaluru-based rice-mill maker Milltec Machinery, with its revenues for the year ended March 2015 remaining static at Rs 190 crore, same as last year’s. “The market for milling equipment has contracted by 35 to 40 percent,” says J Rajendran, co-founder and MD. “A combination of poor monsoon, government policy change, fluctuating paddy prices and low liquidity means rice millers are not making money.” However, one major achievement has been Milltec’s product expansion into the ‘sorting’ segment, which is a Rs 600-crore market in good times. This year will see them focus on the ‘parboiling and dryer’ segment.
SH Kelkar, the Mumbai-based perfume and flavouring maker, is headed for an IPO in the next few months and has filed a Draft Red Herring Prospectus with Sebi. During the last four financial years, revenue and net profit grew at a CAGR of 23.5 percent and 15 percent, respectively. “In the last year, we created, manufactured and supplied over 6,300 fragrances,” says Kedar Vaze, CEO & director. SH Kelkar now exports flavourings to 17 countries, aside from its core perfume products (which it exports to 49 countries). The company has declined to share revenues for FY 2015 as its IPO is coming up.
AND Designs was brimming with activities in the past one year. In November 2014, it launched its flagship store in Mauritius that houses all its brands—AND, Global Desi and Anita Dongre. This February, it collaborated with Meena Jewellers to retail its jewellery brand, Pinkcity, in Dubai. Its gross sales for FY15 were over Rs 320 crore, up from Rs 300 crore last year. With 50 new points of sale opened last year, the company now has over 600 points, including 150 exclusive outlets across three brands.
The last one year has been eventful for Bengaluru-based Strand Life Sciences as it ramped up its genomics-based diagnostic services to provide more personalised treatment for critical diseases like cancer. In an effort to clock 80 percent of its revenues from its business of personalised medicine over the next three years, the company initiated some management changes and expanded its clinical research operations globally. In April, it opened its US centre in Aurora, Colorado, to provide cancer genomic profiling. The company effected a top-management rejig, elevating its North America head Scott Storrer as CEO and global president. The privately-held company did not share its FY15 revenue.
Despite catering to a volatile auto industry, Bengaluru-based Sansera Engineering has managed to outperform its growth projections for FY15. For the financial year 2014-15, the auto components manufacturer has posted revenue of Rs 735 crore (compared to Rs 570 crore in FY14) trumping its earlier estimates of Rs 720 crore. In the last 12 months, Sansera added names such as Volkswagen, India, UK’s JCB, Triumph and Daimler’s truck brand BharatBenz to its existing blue-chip clients list. The company also bagged a global contract from Italian carmaker Fiat to supply critical components for engines.
Hyderabad-based power infrastructure service provider Power Mech went public in August. The firm opened its IPO with a price band of Rs 615-640 a share, allowing it to raise around Rs 191 crore, excluding anchor allotment. The issue witnessed a robust interest from high net-worth individuals and non-institutional investors, with the IPO oversubscribed 37 times. The overall public issue comprised 4.27 million shares, including an offer for sale by Motilal Oswal Private Equity (PE) of nearly 2.14 million shares.
In February, TPG Growth, the mid-market and growth equity platform of the global private investment firm TPG Capital, acquired a controlling stake in Sutures India, up from its previous 23 percent stake. This would explain why the otherwise low-profile firm, one of the largest Indian companies to supply wound-care products to hospitals and clinics, has been strengthening its brand presence in Bangalore, where it has its headquarters. In July, it launched a skill laboratory to train surgeons free of cost on technological advances. In FY2014, it had earned Rs 250 crore in revenues and had set itself a target of Rs 300 crore for FY2015. But the company was unwilling to share further financial details.
(This story appears in the 18 September, 2015 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
