Daily Brief India: Varun Beverages , Cipla Ltd, JSW Steel Ltd and more

• VBL has a history of commanding high growth through acquisitions, product portfolio and geographical expansions and operating leverage
• Varun is now focusing on interesting geographies and products which will aid its next level of growth
• There could be more than bigger success stories like Sting for Varun Beverages if it can repeat history

• In Q4FY24, Cipla Ltd (CIPLA IN) posted 10% YoY revenue growth to INR61.6B. Despite surging R&D expenditure, EBITDA increased 13% YoY to INR13B, leading to 54bps margin expansion to 21.4%.
• New launches in U.S. and outperformance in the domestic market driven by chronic portfolio should drive the growth. For FY25, the company has guided for EBITDA margin of 24.5–25.5%.
• Cipla shares soared 15% YTD. Last week, the promoters, Hamied family sold 2.5% stake in the company for ~INR26B, igniting a rally in share price.

While JSW Steel’s Q4/23-24 results were soft in our view, the full-year numbers were decent. Operational stats remained robust. The share of value-added products was high and continued to increase. The financial risk profile was unchanged q-o-q, but improved significantly from FYE 2022-23. However, liquidity deteriorated and was barely adequate.

We expect a stronger FY 2024-25 with higher revenue and earnings, as the steel operating environment appears to have bottomed out. Steel prices should remain stable, with possible upside. That said, the higher earnings could be offset by an increase in debt to cover the large and growing capex.