Analyst
Nishant Jadav 5675 4479 July 2004
(nishant@indiainfoline.com)
Dealing
(+91 22) 2685 0505
Sandeepa Arora 5540 9033
Biren Patel 5540 8601
Investment Rationale
Recommendation Long Term Buy Dominant position in Indian wine market
CMP Rs 34.5 CIL is a pioneer in the Indian wine industry with a market share of 71%. The company
52 week H/L Rs 47.8/7.5 has a dominant presence in all sub segments namely white, red, sparkling and rosy
Market Cap Rs 230mn wines with a virtual monopoly in the sparkling wine category. It was the first company
in India to introduce champagne under the brand name “Marquise De Pompadour”.
Share Holding Pattern % Exhibit 1: Wine Industry Segmentation
Promoters 60.28
Institutional Investors 14.15 3%
12%
Other Investors 5.71
General Public 19.86
14%
Share Price Chart
71%
The Indian wine industry has been growing at 22% annually, over the last ten years.
Awareness of the benefits of wine drinking is on the rise and wine is gradually becoming
a part of the urban Indian lifestyle. Rising disposable incomes of the Indian population
and exposure to new cultures is adding to the growing consumption. Even on a
conservative basis, we expect the industry to maintain growth rate at current levels.
The company also intends to cater to the demand from Indian restaurants in Europe
and North America, where taste for Indian beer in picking up.
The total advertisement expenditure planned for this project is Rs50mn, which will
generate sales of 0.8mn cases and revenues of Rs120mn. We expect beer business
to contribute Rs15mn to the PBT in FY05.
With its entry into beer and into other alcohol segments later on, CIL will become a
complete alcoholic beverages company. This complete value proposition will take
CIL far ahead of its competitors in the wine industry.
Launched initially in Goa, the company now wants to introduce ‘Sinn’ in Mumbai by
July 2004. Positioned as an alternative to beer and rum cooler ‘Bacardi Breezer’,
CIL is targeting sales of 3mn cases and revenue of Rs100mn from this brand in
FY05. We expect ‘Sinn’ to generate PBT of Rs10mn in FY05.
CIL’s wines enjoy a strong brand image not only in the domestic market but also
overseas. During the initial stages of its operations, the company spent a lot of efforts
in developing a positive image for its wines. CIL regularly participates in international
wine competitions. CIL’s wines have so far won 7 bronze and 1 gold medals at The
International Wine & Spirit Competition, London. Such international acclaims enhance
its brand’s popularity.
Indage Hotels is a highly visible profit making company, which will immensely help the
winemaking efforts of CIL. Overall it is a unique proposition wherein the company
has raw materials, production and brand portfolio of its own to top the marketing
network.
July 06, 2004 4
Champagne Indage - A toast to good times!
CVL, incorporated in 1982, was earlier in the business of viticulture, production and
exports of wines. After the restructuring of the Indage group in 1997, CVL’s wineries
were hived off to CIL and the former now focuses only on viticulture. 100% of CVL’s
grape production in Narayangaon is purchased by CIL for its wineries situated in the
same area. This backward integration provides a strategic advantage for CIL in the
form of guaranteed raw material supply, efficient logistics management and lower
procurement costs.
CIL has tie-ups with leading Indian cuisine restaurants overseas for promoting its wines.
It has also started a contract-bottling unit in Germany. Under this arrangement, the
company will be exporting wine in bulk to Germany where it will be bottled and marketed.
Earlier, due to capacity constraints and growing domestic demand, CIL was not in a
position to focus on the export market. It was exporting wines on a very small scale,
just to keep the market alive and maintain its brand awareness abroad. With additional
capacity from the third winery, exports should see a healthy boost this year. However
the domestic market remains the key focus area for the company given its huge potential.
The regulatory structure in other states is also encouraging. For example, Uttar Pradesh
government has permitted sale of wines in all recognized grocery outlets. We expect
favorable government policies to be announced, especially those relating to distribution
and taxes. This will increase wine consumption by making it more accessible and
affordable.
Issues of concern
Impending equity dilution
To finance its foray into new markets and products, CIL is planning to raise Rs220mn
via issue of Optionally Convertible Debentures (OCDs). The maturity period of this
4% coupon paying debt is 18 months. In the event of redemption, a premium of 4%
shall be paid. The conversion price of the OCDs is fixed at 10x EPS of FY05. We
accept the dilution in equity to the extent of 25%.
The proceeds of the issue will be used for the following purposes:
Purpose Amount (Rs mn)
Working capital required:
• Beer marketing 50
• Sinn 40
Setting up new winery 74
Long term borrowing replacement 90
Total 254
Company background
Champagne Indage Limited (CIL) is India’s leading wine producing company with
71% market share. CIL has been instrumental to a large extent in developing the
wine industry in India. It produces white, red, sparkling and rosy wines of many
varieties. Apart from the domestic market, the company also exports its wines to
USA, Japan, UK, Switzerland, Germany and other European countries. CIL has
three wineries located in Narayangaon, Maharashtra with an aggregate capacity of
3.5mn liters of wine per annum.
Management
CIL is a professionally managed company promoted by Mr. S. G. Chougule. The
Chougule family holds almost 60% of the company’s equity capital. Mr. S. G. Chougule
is assisted by his son Ranjit Chougule to manage the company’s operations. Mr.
Ranjit, who is currently the Executive Director of the company, is an MBA in Finance
with over 7 years of experience in the industry.
Board of Directors
Name Category
S.G.Chougule, Chairman Promoter Non Executive Director
R.S.Chougule Promoter Executive Director
A.B.Shah Independent Non Executive Director
J.B.D’souza, Vice-Chairman Independent Non Executive Director
Haresh.G.Desai Independent Non Executive Director
G.G.Desai Independent Non Executive Director
Antione Merlaut Independent Non Executive Director
Michael Wilkomm Independent Non Executive Director
Sohrab R. Framjee Independent Non Executive Director
Le Saux Thierry Independent Non Executive Director
Mulidhar N. Chaini Independent Non Executive Director
Grape cultivation
The viticulture activities of CIL are located in Narayangaon amidst the Sahyadri Valley
in Maharashtra. Located at an altitude of 700-800Mt, the soil of Narayangaon is lime
rich and chalky and the climate is tropical, which ensures growth of quality grapes with
high yields. The vines in the region have two vegetative periods in a year. The harvesting
of grapes is undertaken in February/March.
The location of the vineyards by the company was undertaken after an extensive all
India survey by a team of experts from France. In the last two decades, CIL has
developed over 600 acres of captive vineyards and over 1,200 acres of contract
farming. It has developed 39 classic varieties and 20 families of grapes so far. Apart
from this, 65 additional varieties are under experimentation in its R&D division. A
wide range of grape varieties will help CIL to introduce new wines at a rapid pace.
Going ahead, CIL plans to develop organic grapes with the help of Biotech techniques.
A specially set up Biotech Lab is already exploring the idea. The company is planning
to augment it’s grape cultivation through contract farming in Himachal Pradesh.
Crushing
Fermentation
Maturation
Bottling
Crushing: The grapes are hand picked and transferred to the crusher. The crusher
punchers the grapes and transfers it to a de-juicer which separates the pulp from the
juice. While the skin, stems and other remains from the crushing are used as manure,
the juice is sent for fermentation.
Fermentation: The grape juice is first chilled in a combination of stainless steel tanks
and oak barrels and then fermented by adding yeast. This process is called the first
fermentation of wine and it takes about 8 weeks.
Maturation: The first fermentation wine is further stored in tanks and/or oak barrels
for 6-8 months for maturation.
Bottling: Once the mature wine is ready, it is stabilized through cold treatment. After
testing the stability of the wine, it then is filtered to screen the balance fine particles.
The filtered wine is then packed in bottles, which are washed internally and externally
with double filtered water to remove bacteria and germs if any.
Peer profile
CIL is the oldest wine manufacturing company in India. Key players in the industry,
apart from CIL, are Grover Wines and Sula Wines. CIL’s production capacity is 5-7
times higher than the other two players’ capacities. Even after a delayed entry, Sula
wines has increased its popularity and gained significant market share. CIL will have
to constantly innovate, introduce new products and build on its brand equity to maintain
its market share.
Company Promoter Yrs of operations Capacity(liters) Market share(%)
Champagne Indage Mr. S. G. Chougule 20 3,500,000 71
Grover Mr. Kanval Grover 10 500,000 14
Sula Mr. Rajeev Samant 4 670,000 12
Valuation
We expect the topline to double in FY05 on back of contribution from Sinn and beer
sales apart from a healthy growth in the existing wines segment. The overall OPM will
fall due to lower margins in the beer business. The stock is attractively valued and
trades at lower than book value of Rs40 per share (as on 31st March 2003). CIL is
trading at a P/E multiple of 3.4x FY05P EPS of Rs10.2 per share and 3.5x FY06P
diluted EPS of Rs9.9 per share. The EPS for FY06 is calculated after assuming equity
dilution arising from full conversion of 18 month OCDs to be issued in FY05.
Dilution assumption
We have assumed 100% conversion of the Rs220mn issue of OCDs. The conversion
price of the OCDs is fixed at 10x times EPS of FY05. The EPS for FY05 is Rs10 as
per our estimates. The conversion price thus comes up to Rs100 per share.
The share of wine in the total alcoholic beverages market in India is a mere 0.14%,
with total consumption of 1.36mn liters per annum. Consumption of beer is the highest
with a 52.6% market share followed by distilled spirits at 47.3%. Low awareness and
high pricing compared to the other two categories makes wine a low market share
category.
Beer
52.58%
Source: Company reports, India Infoline estimates
From a total consumption of 1.36mn liters in FY00, the Indian wine industry has
grown to 2mn liters in FY04. The percentage of imported wine to total wine
consumption in the country has gradually decreased from 56% in FY00 to 39% in
FY04. Most of the importers of wine are five star hotels, embassies and other such
institutions. The imported wine segment is fragmented with over 1,000 labels from
various manufacturers on offer. French wine is the most imported wine in the country.
0%
FY00 FY01 FY02 FY03 FY04
Domestic (%) Imported (%)
As per classification based on the type of wine consumed, red wine has the largest
market share (45% of total wine consumed). White wine stands second with a market
share of 40%, followed by sparkling wine (13%) and rose wine (2%).
2%
13%
45%
40%
Consumption of wine is unevenly spread across the country. Although wine is sold in
around 20 cities in India, 4 cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Bangalore contribute
to almost 70% of the total wine consumption. Lack of availability has limited the
expansion to other parts of the country.
6%
8% 31%
15%
40%
The customs duty on imported wines ranges from 150% to 175%. High customs duty
prevents cheap imports and promotes development of the domestic industry. The duty
structure on imported wines in the last three years is as follows:
Items Additional Duty(CVD)(%) Customs Duty(%)
2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04
Wines having CIF price up to 100 75 75 100 100 100
US$25 for a case of 9 liters
(12 bottles of 750ml)
Wines having CIF price 100 50 50 100 100 100
exceeding US$25
for 9 liters case
Industry outlook
The growing Indian urban population with rising disposable incomes is the key growth
driver for the wine industry. Consumption of wines will also get a boost if the benefit of
duty exemptions in Maharashtra is passed on to consumers through price reductions.
Positive government outlook towards the sector will go a long way in developing the
industry. Going ahead, the industry is likely to witness entry of many local and foreign
players. This will help widen the market further. We expect the industry to maintain the
current growth rate on a conservative basis.
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