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Vans Info: On the dotcom

Poornima Kavlekar

THE markets witnessed severe volatility during the fortnight. During this period, the BSE Sensitive Index closed at a high of 5,933.56 points and bottomed at 5,313.59 points. Stocks such as Eider Electronics, Flex Chemicals, J K Chemicals, Denim Organics and Elpro International gained significantly. The share price of Vakrangee Software shot up by Rs. 304.25 to Rs. 494.20.

Besides these companies, Thirumalai Chemicals gained around Rs. 98.10 and closed at Rs. 199.95. The company is planning to commence a new business focussing on distribution and sale of goods and services through e-commerce.

Elbee Services gained around Rs. 141.15 and closed at Rs. 303.05 during the fortnight. The company is planning to issue equity shares/PCDs/FCDs on private placement basis to foreign or domestic investors.

The share price of Vans Information & Investor Services has been witnessing an unabated uptrend in the last two to three months. For the fortnight, it gained around Rs. 102.40 and closed at Rs. 216.15. The company proposes to acquire the Internet, dotcom and electronic properties of the Business India group. This acquisition will give Vans, the electronic, Net and dotcom rights to all the Business India group publications.

The share price of Xo Tronic gained around Rs. 39.75 for the fortnight and closed at Rs. 65.95. The company is planning to raise funds through fully convertible debentures to the tune of around Rs. 10-20 crores. The funds raised would be utilised to repa y term loans.

The stock of Crest Communications has gained around Rs. 604.55 during the fortnight and closed at Rs. 1,248.20. The company has decided to enter the animation business. The Mumbai-based multimedia software company provides post-production services such a s film-to-tape transfer, electronic video editing, computer generated graphics and audio mixing.

As a part of its growth strategy, the company has entered into an arrangement for providing services in the field of `virtual and augmented reality technology' to cater to the European markets.

For the nine months ended December 31, 1999, the performance of the company has been reasonably good. The turnover increased to Rs. 12.83 crores from Rs. 12.34 crores, marginally up by 4 per cent. The operating margins improved to 46.30 per cent from 40 per cent.

Despite a marginal topline growth, the bottomline of the company improved considerably. The post-tax earnings increased by around 91 per cent to Rs. 2.25 crores from Rs. 0.21 crore. This improvement has been mainly due to the fall in the interest charges to Rs. 2.03 crores from Rs. 2.71 crores. Depreciation charges also fell to Rs. 1.74 crores from Rs. 2.10 crores. On an equity base of Rs. 9.44 crores, the annualised per share earnings stands at Rs. 3.20.

During September 1999, the company made a preferential offer of shares at Rs. 120. The proceeds of this offer have been used to repay loans from the banks and institutions. The impact of this repayment is evident in the third quarter performance of the c ompany. The post-tax earnings for the quarter ended December 31, 1999 increased to Rs. 1.19 crores from Rs. 0.12 crore.