The importance of reading concall transcripts: A case study of Alkyl Amines

This note is to stress the importance of reading concall transcripts of companies whose fundamentals you wish to study.

Alkyl Amines declared its Apr-June 2021 quarter result yesterday.

As you may notice below (or click to view the original), the net profit (last row) in Apr-June 2021 reduced from Rs 92.59 crore in the previous quarter to Rs 78.54 crore this quarter.

This was a decline of 15 per cent, primarily on account of the rise in the raw material costs as highlighted below.

While revenue from operations increased by only 2.3 per cent (from Rs 382 crore in March 2021 to Rs 391.8 crore, the cost of materials consumed increased by a staggering 19.6 per cent.

The increase in raw material expenses in turn ate into its operating profit margins (operating profit margins as shown below:

The question is: Was this unexpected?

To an analyst closely tracking this company, the answer is no. Take a look at the conference call transcript from June 2021, in which the management had already guided the rise in raw material costs -- mainly crude and acetic acid prices.

Note that acetic acid is used as an input to produce acetonitrile, a key product of the company. Acetonitrile in turn is used as a solvent in the pharma industry.

Crude oil & its derivatives are used as an input in producing methanol, which in turn used in methyl amine.

Here's management's view on on crude prices impacting gross margins (for those who may not know, gross margin is gross profit divided by revenues. Gross profit is simply revenues minus raw material costs):