Top 5 performers of FY16 and award goes to…

With earnings season’s adrenaline rush fading off, we analysed sales growth for about 200 large caps across sectors and ranked them. The retail giant Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd. took the top slot with highest sales and operating profit growth of 227 and 442 per cent, respectively. News grabbing, Strides Shasun Ltd. from pharmaceutical and health care sector was adorned with second position with sales growth of a whopping 164 per cent. Eicher Motors was one down position with three digit sales growth of 104 per cent in FY16 as compare to FY15. Eicher also posted good operating profit growth of 150 per cent. Dalmia Bharat, took fourth slot with net profit growth of 6156 per cent which is highest among all. Last but not the least, SKS Microfinance at fifth position also gives double digit growth numbers.

After acquiring Jubilant Industries’ hypermarket business in a slump sale deal last year, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail is now focusing on launch of London’s Simon Carter designer wear brand in India to grow its international portfolio. ABFRL is also in the process of acquiring online and offline business of American Fashion Brand, Forever21, and trading in Indian market to create strong foothold in womenswear business in western wear segment. This will strengthen the leadership position of ABFRL in branded fashion space. 

Strides Shasun Ltd. is looking at being well placed in this financial year after merging with Shasun. Now it has become integrated pharma company with focus on narrow niche areas. Strides has improved on generics’ margins by shredding its Agila Specialities business to Mylan.

Eicher Motors continues to have robust demand for its products and has a very strong order book. Company makes Royal Enfield motorcycle and is in JV with Volve for manufacturing of commercial vehicles. Despite the Chennai floods company was able to sell 452,759 Royal Enfield across the entire 2015. On CV business, Eicher Trucks and buses showed growth of 33.5 and 19 per cent in Q4 respectively due to gain in market share. 

Dalmia Bharat under capacity expansion started commercial production of Nainadevi Plant with 1750 tonnes cane crushing capacity per day adding Kolhapur plant to its list as well. These strategies aided to increase net profit to 95 per cent. SKS Microfinance’s business momentum was robust with asset under management (AUM) up to 84 per cent in Q4FY16. Company has also posted strong loan disbursement growth. With this company’s net profit has jumped to over 100 per cent in Q4FY16 which has helped company to maintain its position as India’s second microfinance lender by asset.

If we were to believe, stock markets to reward the exemplary sales performance, we are on the right track. We see Eicher Motors has given returns of 170% over last two years while Aditya Birla got beaten down due to sharp decline in net profits. Dalmia Bharat also rewarded investors with 136% during the same period.