Optical storage media company Moser Baer India Ltd posted a bigger first quarter loss, hurt by increase in commodity prices but said it hopes to achieve a breakeven by the end of current fiscal. The losses for quarter ended June 30, 2011 stood at Rs 92.2 crore against about Rs 88 crore in the year-ago period.

Raw material costs particularly, silver, plastic, polycarbonate as also fuel, have increased over the last one year, a senior company official said. In Q1 FY12, the net sales, on a standalone basis, grew about 17 per cent year-on-year to Rs 523 crore.

“The traction resulting from the correction of over supply in the global storage media market has enabled us to renegotiate orders with the customers. The new orders with price hike along with the stabilising prices of key input commodities have created the resurgent environment,” Mr Bhaskar Sharma, CEO - Optical Media, MBIL said in a statement.

“The improved current cash generation is a strong indicator of the company returning to profitability in the coming quarters,” he added.

When contacted, Mr Yogesh Mathur, Group CFO, said that Moser Baer expects a breakeven in the second half of the financial year. “The price increase (on storage media products) commenced from June, given the better demand-supply scenario…The volumes too are increasing,” he said.

The company, said Mr Mathur, had seen price increase of 15-20 per cent in June and another 5-7 per cent in July.

“The full impact of this will be felt in the September quarter,” he said. The company said it expected EBITDA margins to increase to 18-20 per cent for the storage media business, in the next two quarters.

> moumita@thehindu.co.in

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