SHREE RENUKA SUGAR : Best buy in Sugar Sector .

Scrip Code: 532670 / RENUKA 

CMP:  Rs. 64.35; Buy at current levels for ST;LT buy at Rs.58 - Rs.60 ;  Short term Target: Rs. 75;  LT – Rs. 100 ; Market Cap: Rs. 4,312.98 cr; 52 Week High/Low: Rs. 108.20 / Rs. 55.90; Total Shares: 67,12,80,850 shares; Promoters : 25,55,67,980 shares –38.07 %; Total Public holding : 41,57,12,870 shares – 61.93 %; Book Value: Rs. 26.51; Face Value: Rs. 1; EPS: Rs. 1.19; Div: 100 % ; P/E: 53.99 times; Ind P/E: 13.17; EV/EBITDA: 8.32. 

Total Debt: RS. 6508 cr; Enterprise Value: Rs. 10,820.98 crs.

SHREE RENUKA SUGARS LTD was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Mumbai, India with an additional office in Belgaum, India. SRSL focuses on three businesses - Sugar, Bio-fuels & Renewable energy. The company produces power from Bio-gases - a by-product of sugar; and offers ethanol, which is extracted form molasses. In addition, it provides bio-fertilizers - a residue product from distillery operations blended with chemicals. It has cane crushing operations in Karnataka (Munoli, Athani, Havalgah and Gokak) and Maharashtra (Pathri). It also operates two leased facilities at Maharashtra (Arag) and Karnataka (Raibag). The Company has three integrated refineries in Karnataka each at Munoli and Havalgah and a port-based refinery in West Bengal. Some of its subsidiaries include Renuka Commodities DMCC, Shree Renuka Agri Ventures Limited, Gokak Sugars Limited, SRSL Ethanol Limited and KBK Chem Engineering Private Limited. On September 30, 2009, the Company acquired VALE DO IVAI S/A ACUCAR E ALCOOL (VDI), a Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer. In July 2010, Shree Renuka Sugars Limited acquired a controlling stake of 50.34% in Equipav S.A. Acucar e Alcool. Equipav will give Shree Renuka 10.5 million tons of annual crushing capacity in Brazil, the top producer, and help it meet half its raw-sugar requirement of 1.7 million tons.

Investment Rationale

SRS is the only sugar/ethanol producer in the world with almost a year-long cane crushing operations as it has operations in Brazil and India, which have complimentary cane crushing seasons. Cash flows from the Brazilian operations would be self sufficient to meet obligations and yield a surplus. SRS's integrated, diversified and flexible business model makes it more resilient to cyclical downsides. Over last couple of months there has been a strong price correction of 40% from peak due to supply pressure from change in production mix with larger players swinging towards sugar production, and additional 3 mt production surprise from Thailand (where higher sugar price makes the sugar production more profitable than tapioca). In my view domestic sugar prices would move upwards and would trade above Rs. 30/kg due to lower than expected sugar production in the country. Sugarcane prices paid to farmers in FY11 was Rs. 210/Quintal compared to Rs. 240/Quintal paid in FY10. This would result in lower sugar production in FY12. However, sugar prices in Brazil have corrected from its peak of 36 cents/lb in Feb, 2011 to 21 cents/lb currently.

Investment concerns: With the current domestic sugar prices per kilo at Rs. 27 – Rs. 28, the company is making losses on the bottom-line. It is expected that domestic sugar prices to firm up to Rs. 30/kg led by the lower than expected sugar production in India. At the same time, profitability from the Brazilian operations would improve due to the increasing ethanol prices and higher sugar realisations at 23cents/lb (the company having hedged 80% of its annual sugar production at 23c/lb via future contracts). However Rs. 6500 crore of long term debt on the book would remain an concern and a hurdle for the valuations.

Outlook & Valuation: Shree Renuka Sugars (SRS) is one of the top 10 sugar producers in the world. It is the only sugar company to have significant operations in the two most relevant locations in the world - the largest sugar exporter, Brazil, and the largest sugar consumer, India. Over FY06 - FY10, SRS grew from a very small domestic sugar player to a global giant, with an average RoE of 32.4% and EPS of 20% CAGR in a cyclical industry, which speaks a lot about its vision and capabilities.

In my view, Shree Renuka Sugars is the best company to play the global sugar industry recovery and is a direct play on rising sugar/ethanol prices. Strong cash flow visibility would allow it to de-leverage itself and will meet all the concerns regarding its high leverage. The stock trades at 8.5x FY11E EPS of Rs. 7.7, 1.3x FY11E BV of Rs. 48.4, and EV/EBITDA of 6.1x FY11E. I value SRS at Rs. 85, based on EV/EBITDA of 6x FY12E EBITDA an upside of 31%. So it comes a Buy on SRS for Rs.75 in Short term & Rs. 100 in Long term.

KEY FINANCIALS	FY10	FY11E	FY12E
SALES (Rs. crs)	7,669.6	9,494.2	11,741.5
NET PROFIT (Rs. crs)	692.2	514.2	733.9
EPS (Rs.)	10.3	7.7	11.0
PE (x)	6.3	8.5	5.9
P/BV (x)	1.9	1.3	0.9
EV/EBITDA (x)	8.4	6.1	4.5
ROE (%)	37.1	20.7	22.6
ROCE (%)	16.4	12.2	14.3

I maintain my buy status on SHREE RENKA SUGARS with the price target of Rs. 75 in short term. For long term my target is of Rs. 100. As I always say do respect the market and keep a strict stop loss of 8 % on your every purchase.