Simplex Realty Ltd - Stock Valuation and Financial Performance

Simplex Realty (formerly known as The Simplex Mills Company Ltd) is a well known name in the Mumbai real estate business. The group has been in the business of construction and property development for almost a decade now. Entering the real estate realm in the year 2001, with its first mega residential project “Planet Godrej” located in South-Central Mumbai; which is spread on 6.51 lakh sq ft area, comprising five towers being the tallest in the vicinity and each tower having 48 floors. The said project ‘Planet Godrej’ comprises 2 BHK, 3 BHK, duplex and penthouses and is developed in association with Godrej Properties. Spearheading the Damani family to its zenith in the textile and yarn Industries was Surajratan Damani who had started off on his visionary stride by taking over one of the oldest textile mills located at Byculla, Mumbai in 1954.

Subsequently the company also started a new unit of industrial fabrics and cotton yarn located at Akola, Maharashtra. The company’s next foray was into the paper industry, which saw the setting up of a paper unit in Gondia, Maharashtra in the year 1983-84. During the year 2004-05 the Damani conglomerate demerged into two separate entities namely Simplex Mills Company Limited and Simplex Papers. Subsequently “Simplex Mills Company Limited” was renamed to “Simplex Realty Limited” as the company has entered into the real-estate business in both residential and commercial segment.

Milestones:

1912 - The company was incorporated at Mumbai. The main objective of the company is to manufacture cotton, silk, terene & blended textiles & bleaching & dyeing materials & paper & paper board. 

1983 - The company set up a paper plant at Gondia in Maharashtra. A second-hand reconditioned paper plant with an annual capacity of 10,000 tonnes purchased from UK was installed. 

1988 - New products like nylon conveyor belting and nylon cycle cord were introduced to cater to the needs of the industrial sector. 

1989 - The Gondia paper plant unit could dispose of all accumulated stocks. In order to overcome loss of production it was decided to modernise the existing machines for which a scheme was submitted to the financial Institutions. 

1990 - The company undertook to replace all the ordinary looms with 140 Ruti-C looms. 48 of these looms were installed and put into operation and the remaining 92 were installed during 1992-93. 

1991 - The company undertook to install a high efficiency fluidised bed combustion boiler. With a view to improving the plant performance to cater to the high end of the market and also to increase plant capacity to approximately 40%, the company approached a German Consultancy firm. 

1992 - The increase in input costs, transporters' strike in July, followed by communal disturbances once again affected the working of the unit. The German Consultants recommended shutting down the plant for carrying out modification in the paper machine. 

1994 - During the year, the company undertook to install balancing equipment in order to increase production. 

1995 - The company proposed to increase the daily output to 100 tonnes. 

1996 - The performance of the Gondia paper plant was badly affected due to poor price realisation on account of stiff competition from imported papers including writing and printing papers. 

1997 - The performance of the company was not satisfactory due to poor market conditions, increase in excise duty, etc. The performance of the Akola unit was adversely affected, due to increase in excise duty coupled with poor market conditions. The performance of the Gondia paper plant was not satisfactory due to competition from imported paper, reduced prices of domestic paper resulting in erosions of margins.

2010 - Best Podium Garden for the year 2010 by Brihanmumbai Mahanagarpalika & Tree Authority Udyan – Planet Godrej.