This Vijay Kedia-owned stock has zoomed over 70% in 3 days

Shares of Panasonic Energy India Company hit a near eight-year high at Rs 427, as they rallied 20 per cent on the BSE in Tuesday’s intra-day trade amid heavy volumes.

In past three trading days, the stock of the company engaged in business of manufacturing dry cell batteries has zoomed 72 per cent from level of Rs 247.55. It now quotes at its highest level since August 2015. The stock had touched a record high of Rs 450 on August 5, 2015.

At 10:30 AM; Panasonic Energy was trading 17 per cent higher at Rs 417.50, as compared to 0.4 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The average trading volumes at the counter jumped over seven-fold, with 240,000 shares changing hands on the BSE. Currently, the stock is trading under ‘X’ group, which are only listed on the BSE.

Vijay Kishanlal Kedia, investor, held 93,004 shares or 1.24 per cent stake in the company, the data shows.

As on June 30, 2023, Panasonic Energy has 7.5 million outstanding shares. Of these Panasonic Holdings Corporation, the promoter, held 4.35 million or 58.06 per cent stake in the company. The remaining 41.94 per cent holding are with individual shareholders (34.03 per cent), Punj-Lloyd Private Limited (2.23 per cent) and others (5.68 per cent), the shareholding pattern data shows.

For the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), Panasonic Energy had posted net loss of Rs 10.64 crore, as against net profit of Rs 9.39 crore, due to higher operational expenses.

During FY23, the purchase prices of major materials remained upward vs. FY22. Due to the record surge in international freight forwarding cost, shortage of containers, crude oil price increase, regional conflict, and high market demand from other Asian countries and devaluation of the currency against the USD along with the increase in labor cost, the material landed cost had increased substantially.

The average purchase prices of EMD, Zinc, ACB, Metal jackets, PVC, Corrugation packaging, Zinc chloride etc. stayed higher in FY23 by around 110 per cent to 180 per cent, which not only impacted the direct materials cost but also severely disrupted estimates on profits.

However, the prospect for Zinc Carbon dry batteries demand seems to be very encouraging during the coming years, one of the reasons being the growing usage of batteries in portable devices as well as the robust Indian economy and government policies promoting MAKE IN INDIA, which is likely to generate more business opportunities.

Secondly, it is foreseen that many other industries such as electronic, TV, AC and set-top manufacturing companies shall rely more on local make batteries vs. the imported batteries in lien of the thrust on BIS and battery waste management rules by Government of India, Panasonic Energy said in FY23 annual report.

The industry has a promising business outlook and great potential for growth, considering the increasing use of battery powered devices. Further, alkaline batteries are expected to strengthen their dominance in the primary battery market and continue to witness the fastest growth, primarily due to the increasing demand for primary batteries, the company said.