Doubled cotton seed sales help Kaveri Seed more than double profits

HYDERABAD: Hybrid seed manufacturer Kaveri Seed Company, where private equity firm IDFC holds 9% stake, saw its sales nearly doubling at Rs 711 crore for the year to March 2013 largely backed by doubling of cotton seed sales, while it saw net profit more than doubling at Rs 130 crore. In the previous fiscal, the company reported Rs 58 crore net profit on Rs 372 crore of sales.

In the March quarter, the company reported Rs 74 crore of sales and Rs 11 crore of net profit as against Rs 42 crore of sales and Rs 3 crore of net profit a year ago.

"Our cotton seeds were well received by the farming community last year that enabled us report over 100% growth. The sales of maize seeds grew by 25% and rice by 20%," managing director GV Bhaskar Rao told ET.

Rao said the company expects to report at least 20% growth for the current fiscal based on normal monsoon forecast, where the demand for cotton seeds was set to increase.

Shares of Kaveri Seeds on Thursday closed at Rs.1,229.80 down by 3.02% on BSE while the bourse down by 1.93% and closed at 19,674.33 points.