Titan Biotech Ltd and SKM Egg product export ltd-Dark Horses

I picked Avanti Feeds at 32/- in Aug-11 in a hospital room in Punjab when my 6 months pregnant wife was hospitalized due to malaria. When she recovered I bought it and devoted it to our coming Baby…and Boy!!! It turned out to be one of my best pick. I received dividends of around 40/- during the period and finally sold my entire holding at 1200/- in Aug-14. A gain of 40 times of my purchase price…I sold it due to some personal reason. It is still moving ahead with its journey.

Some of my friends are of the view that my picking Avanti feeds was a great feat but nothing compared to the patience I have shown by not selling it at 300/-, 500/- , 800/-

We also picked MPS Ltd at 33/- around the same time. It has given me dividends of 50/- rupees and it is trading at around 600/- and I am still holding it.

Some of my friends have asked me whether it is possible to find these types of shares even at this juncture of market. Well market is never devoid of these types of opportunities. Titan Biotech and SKM Egg product export are the two stocks which I feel can become our next Avanti.

Titan Biotech: This company can be a dark horse…I am holding it since 2010…initially bought it at 21 then at 15 and again at 12 in 2012. It is a microbiological biotech product company producing high tech biological products which are used in the field of Pharmaceutical, Nutraceutical, Food & Beverages, Biotechnology & Fermentation, Cosmetic, Veterinary & Animal Feed, Agriculture Industries, Microbiology Culture Media & Plant Tissue Culture Media etc. The Biotechnology field requires a lot of Research and Development and takes time to develop new products. 

Continuous development of newer products and exports to 35 countries all over the world in short span of time is an exceptional achievement of the organization.

Company has established a strong base for growth and can really grow big time in the future. Its turnover has grown from 16 cr in 2010 to 40 cr in 2014…but this is just the beginning. I was also waiting and watching the progress from sideline and now I feel the time has come for making a big investment in it.

Products produced by it require high degree of technical expertise and there are high entry barriers. Lets look at some of them:

Brewer’s Yeast: it is a type of veg yeast used to prepare alcohol by ferment sugars for the the brewing of the beers. It is also used to bake breads.  However the brewer yeast can also be used as a nutritional supplement as it contains high amount of proteins and amino acid, various types of vitamins and various types of minerals.  This is one of the excellent nutritional supplement and it is also used to control blood sugar levels, improve the skin health, prevent diarrhea, improve cholesterol level, and repel insects.

Protein Hydroslate and Whey Protein Hydrolysate:  It is a delight for bodybuilders and for those who really want to have healthy bodies. Whey protein helps in building lean muscles without adding onto your waist. However in biotechnology field it acts as a supplement to cell cultures. It is used in many fields like agriculture, medicine, bio-remediation, industrial fermentation and many more. The demand for Pharmaceutical protein hydrolysate has also increased due to the increased use of the products in the same field.

The production of pepticides, monoclonal antibiotics and therapeutic proteins includes protein hydrolysate as a major component.

Agar Agar Powder – A Best Vegetable Source of Protein: Agar-Agar is a product derived from red algae and is categorized as a vegetarian form of gelatin. Several products like custards, jelly and other deserts products are formed from Agar-Agar. It is generally used in Biotechnology field for bacterial, yeast transformation and clinical purposes. Apart from biotechnology field, it is even used in paper industry, food industry, textile industry, metalworking, leather industry, cosmetic industry, natural medicines and many more fields. It plays a significant role in the field of Microbiological research by enhancing a greater capacity than any other animal gelatin for the resistance of micro-organisms.

Potassium Silicate Powder is organic approved for use in Agricultural crop, fruits and vegetables. It helps in increased tolerance of environment stress like heat, cold, drought, water and soil toxicity. It plays major role against fungal and insect or attacks.

It has a range of agricultural nutrients for the use in agricultural in the form of Aminofert series. These agricultural nutrients have rich sources of nutrients in concentrated forms.

Other products includes Meat extract powder, beef extract powder, calcium amino acid chelate, Nutrivet which deals with veterinary and pet  food, Bile salt mixture, liver extract etc. The list is long.

It is a member of Pharmexcil (pharmaceutical export council of India), Capexil (Chemical and allied Export Promotion Council in India) and All India Food Processors' Association (AIFPA).

It promotes its products through these organizations overseas by setting up stalls at trade fairs at important locations. Like in Oct- 14 it is participating in events at France and Japan.

It has just completed the installation of new plant and machinery at its new factory in Bhiwadi, near Delhi. Its earlier plant is also based at Bhiwadi. It has embarked a plan for modernization of its old plant, machinery, lab and other facilities at a cost of around 16 cr. It will go for debt route for these as debt levels at present are low. Long term debt is at 3.24 cr that too is from related parties (perhaps promoter group), however working capital loan is also at 3 cr as in 2013-14 it has negative cash flow of 6 cr from operating activities as its trade debtors increased from 2.5 cr in 2012-13 to 6 cr in 2013-14 although 5.3 cr of these are less than 6 month old and good.

However in spite of rising debt levels its interest cost has come down to 23 lac from 35 lac…perhaps it has capitalized interest paid for new plant but I have it yet to be confirmed ( I’ll confirm the same from company).  It is having cash of 2 cr against a market value of only 20 cr.

 It has also converted its authorized preference shares into equity shares and promoter entity is ready to subscribe to the preferential issue of 350000 shares at a price of 60/- per share. It shows the commitment and fairness of promoter group as current price is around 30/-

They are paying dividends regularly that too at a current yield of 2.5% although they are only earning 2 cr as net profit in 13-14. They have updated their website and included a separate section for investors which was not there earlier.  

My avg cost is around 16 and I have received dividends of around rs. 2 in these years. I feel this dividend can grow manifold if company can live upto its potential. I am fairly satisfied with the fairness of group overall…but as it is a small company so it has its inherent risks associated with it. But I am going to invest more in it as the risk is worth taking.

SKM Egg: I bought this one in 2010 at 17/- then as it went on falling upto 5 last year…I just accumulated. My avg now is 10/- This is one of the biggest Egg powder company in the world producing liquid, frozen and dried whole eggs, whites, yolks and blends. With very low demand from india so SKM is currently operate as EOU. Egg powder is used in a variety of products…from fast food to as a ingredient in many packaged foods. Demand for egg white is growing world wide due to increasing awareness regarding health. Fast food chains like Mcdonalds…who are trying to change their image as health brands.

Current prices for dried egg whites are the highest since December 1979. Prices for dried egg whites are up 50% since mid-April, up 75% since February and up 60% from a year ago. SKM went into bad period during 2010-2012 due to global economic  slowdown and incurred losses during that period.

But time changed from 2013 and company earned NP of 6 cr from a turnover of 230 cr. While the previous years saw the the company`s utilization hovering around 65-70%, 2012-13 and 2013-14 have seen near 100% capacity utilization rates. This year 1^st qtr turnover is up at 60 cr from 50 cr…NP is at 3 cr as compared to 70 lac last year. Interest cost is at 1.6 cr as compared to 2.78 cr last year. This indicates improvements at all levels. This year can be the starting of its best times. Company is targeting a turnover of 500 crore in 2017.

SKM egg use almost 1.6 million eggs per day…it sources almost 75% of these from contract farmers where quality is maintained as per global standards. For balance it is operating a captive poultry farm which houses 6 lac birds. From this poultry farm,  SKM has introduced branded eggs in indian market which are fortified with essential minerals and vitamins like calcium, Omega-3 fatty acids. Birds are given healthy diet and hygiene and they are monitored regularly to maintain the highest standard. 

With economic growth and change in eating habits…demand for egg products is also going to rise in india and india will be a huge market due to its population.

I think SKM egg is the starting of a new story. It is having most modern machinery and holds great reputation among global giants like Unilever, Kraft, Nestle.

Great buy around 12-13 and hold it for 2-3 years. (This message was sent on 31.07.14 and I bought some more at 14.50 that day…current price is 31/- I think it is still worthy of investing and at every fall.)

(Views are personal and should not be taken as a recommendation for buy or sell a stock. Stock markets are inherently risky so kindly do your Due Diligence before investing)

Death-a Contemplation-2

One reader after reading my first post Click here on the subject has posted the following question:

Q: Hey after reading this blog, my mind is filled with a lot of questions. There have been cases where dead people come back to life but most of them dont remember during that short time span and the ones who remember recall a godly person in a robe telling them there time has not come. Is that a perception of their unconscious mind? also there is a rarest of rare medical condition in which people die suddenly and come back to life, sometimes in their graves, about to get buried. really shocking documentary i saw on discovery. What could be the reason for that? And this thing about destiny. we are told that we are punished for what we do by God. But its also evidently written in Bhagwat Gita that nothing happens without God's will. So how can we be punished for something that is already meant to happen?

Ans:

Life, as we are living is not the only possible way to live. It is only the extension of one of the possible ways. For us life is about education, job, marriage, children etc. we have established societies although we never share. Even our creativity is money and career oriented. We began with stones and now we have stones from Moon in our hands. This seems one remarkable journey. But can we say that the current style of living is the only possible best way to live life? 

Can we say that there was always a place for clothes, fire/salt/oil for preparing our food in the life process? Life intended us to live in that way? In one chilling winter night in Punjab, me and one of my friend was wandering in the streets to enjoy the winter. We saw some beggars in the streets crying for warm clothes. My friend said, “what our life could have been without clothes? We could have died. But God has already arranged for that”. But i was of the opinion that if we hadn’t discovered the clothes, then we would have had some other arrangements like thick or hairy skin like other animals. In order to cope with the adverse climate, our bodies might have developed amazing capabilities over generations. Just Like in place of fuel based propulsion engine to fly, we could have invented anti gravity.

Can’t we have a social system where nothing is personal…no personal property…everything belongs to the society and people do work to satisfy their urge for creativity, contribution.

I mean, we provide meaning to life as per our definitions…definitions which are relative to our level of perception…definitions which says there are good and bad deeds….and bad deeds are punishable. But you see the world around you and nowhere you will find any application of this rule as established by GOD or Mother Nature. No such rule got activated when that innocent girl “nirbhaya” was being raped and killed in Delhi…no God came down to save her. In fact no God has ever come down to save any of crores of such girls. No God has ever come down to save innocent babies who are killed in accidents or murdered.

You come out and see with open eyes and you will see only one rule…Survival of the fittest. It is dedicatedly followed in Jungle where every moment is about survival.

I don’t deny God…he is-for consciousness can’t be without superconsciousness but question is whether our observation or experience about him is right or we can better say absolute. Because if not saving a poor girl is a sin for us then the same thing applies to God also because he sees and knows everything as we depict him.

Life is stranger than we think. If being God is love and compassion then why still hate and cruelty prevails? Does something is out of control of Almighty or we can’t comprehend the complete picture of life? With our current set of observations we’ll only reach “what created God”…this question is way too heavy for our tiny minds…we just can’t comprehend something out of nothing.

This question is still staring at us…but instead of solving we have pronounced the way of Almighty…declared his likings and disliking. But I feel the mystery is still unsolved. A rope becomes a snake in utter darkness.

I am of the view that consciousness is multi layered. We, the humans, are somewhere in middle with things like stones at the lowest…they have lowest level of life or consciousness. We can’t make a lion realize the pain of a deer, his prey…we can’t teach him kindness…for him deer is just food…his level of consciousness limits him upto that. But we, the human, know that people have died without food for their love.

In the same way, Devtas like Indra and others are those who are above us in hierarchy and so they understand life and existence much better than us. And perhaps somewhere in these layers lies a consciousness who understands the mystery of God. And when some human transforms…like Buddha, Mahaveera…he moves up the ladder and then there is no returning back.

Although we can’t understand the mystery of creation (or GOD) from nothing or of a universe which is ALWAYS here but yet we KNOW that it has really Happened as only because of that happening we are here…the only thing which we don’t or can’t seem to know is HOW it has happened.

Hence we are wrong in our perception that our understanding of life is an absolute one. Life is really much more complex than a two sum game of good and bad. 

Regarding Lord Krishna saying that everything is a will of God…I feel he was saying this to Arjuna to persuade him to go for War, who didn't want to go for the war and I feel logic wasn’t that great because Arjuna could have told him that his decision to move away from war was also a will of God. How can one decide the will of God? Millions died in Tsunami…whether it was a will of God? Had I tried to save someone from dying, would it have been an opposition to will of God? Who will decide and how? Will of God is a psychological concept to console ourselves in adversity. 

90% of our universe is dark matter…means the matter which we can’t see and comprehend but it is there and everywhere. As scientists look closer at the speeds of stars in some galaxies, they find something strange. The individual stars in a galaxy should act like the planets in our solar system--the farther away from the center (in our Milky way, the sun) , the slower they should move. But the Doppler Shift reveals that the stars in many galaxies do not slow down at farther distances. And on top of that, the stars move at speeds that should rip the galaxy apart; there is not enough measured mass to supply the gravity needed to hold the galaxy together.

It is possible only if galaxy contains more mass than was calculated. Scientists theorize that, if the galaxy was surrounded or filled by huge unseen matter, the galaxy could remain stable at such high rotational speeds.

This unseen matter is Dark Matter which is staggering 90%. Not only are we not at the center of the universe as we know it, but we aren't even made up of the same stuff as most of the universe. universe is something completely different, We are just this small excess, an insignificant phenomenon…perhaps a wastage…

Gurpreet Singh.

 

Death-a contemplation

Whether the desire to find God is a Greed (Lobh), to satisfy one’s ego (Ahmkaar)? is it a Greed just like when someone just wants to accumulate wealth by any means? Can we place both on the same footing? But there is a definite difference between someone who is looking/finding for Cold Drink madly to quench his craving and the other one who is running for water everywhere to quench his thirst. First one is a person who just can’t rise above or control the demand of its senses but for the second the search is existential, it’ll decide his life or death.

For a true Seeker, the search of GOD or ultimate objective Reality is not just out of some type of curiosity but for him it is Existential when he finds the uselessness of life he was living till then, where nothing was under his control, where fear was the only motivational and driving force, where he knows neither his beginning nor his end, when mystery of life engulfs him from everywhere and he feels the presence of a superconsciousness. When he realizes that all our truths are relative, relative to the point of reference

Some time back, someone asked me why our great old Rishis and Gurus created those massive Vedas and Granthas? Whether they did this to satisfy their ego, to show their knowledge? Well…the reason wasn’t this…in fact in most of the cases they weren’t the writers of the great Granthas.

In old times, there were no printing presses, no paper. Knowledge was transferred only through memory to next generations. This is the reason why our Granthas are in Verse form rather of prose. Poetic or verse form is much easier to memorize than prose form. Our Vedas and Granthas weren’t for general public, these in fact were dialogues between Rishis/Gurus and their disciples…who were also on same journey but needed guidance. 

But nobody can transfer his experience to others just via words…everybody has to experience on his own. Nobody can make me to experience the taste of oranges just by explaining it via words if I haven’t tasted the one in my life. But someone who has tasted it can help me out by telling me the ways to find it and the “Signs” to identify it. He can tell me the colour, shape and taste of the orange by giving me the example of Lemon.

And if someday on my way to life if I encounter the real orange, I can recall the “signs” explained by him and eventually would be able to taste it and relish it.

And this is what our great Granthas/Vedas are….they are “Signs”. A seeker on his journey to experience the ultimate reality can use these to ascertain whether he is on right path. And he won’t understand these signs just by “reading” these unless he really faces the situation or event. Until then these words remain a secret.

That is why so much importance has been given to a Guru in the spiritual journey…the journey which is the riskiest as one wrong step can lead to a point of no return. And sooner or later in our Life…we are going to realize that roses are not Red in fact…we are coloring them…in their own they may be of a different color…we see only what our eyes CAN SEE.

So just reciting of these Granthas won’t change anything in us unless we are in the realm of experience. These are not supposed to be just read to please some God or fulfill our demands like cheap onions. They walk with us and point towards important signs and milestones in our journey.

Bhagvad Geeta is full of such signs…it always makes me Shiver as  I feel it can’t be created by a Human…it can’t be a result of mental juggling like somebody is writing these words just by thinking…No, it is the result of experiences of highest order.

Once someone asked me what death was? “Death…for a common man, may be just like a sleep…in fact a Mahasleep”, was my reply. And I at once recall one phrase from Geeta, when Lord Krishna says, “A yogi is still awake while sleeping”. I have read this earlier a number of times but never understood the real meaning behind it. 

In sleep, we become almost a dead body…incapable and insensitive to the surroundings…unaware. We don’t feel our OWN Presence, we lose the feeling of “I Am” and unless we wake up we are never going to realize that we were asleep. We can’t differentiate a dream while in sleep. And so like all other facets of our life in waking state, everything is out of our control in sleep also. Everything becomes dark beyond perception.

There is something of us except our body which is always thinking, creating thoughts, desires, dreams…we call it MIND. Our mind is always working…even in our sleep…that’s why we witness dreams in sleep. But there is one slight difference in waking state….something in us watches these thoughts, sometimes directs the flow and direction of thought. We can call it “soul” or “I am” and when we sleep our body and this thing “soul” goes into some type of shut down mode and so our mind wanders freely and we witness bizarre and irrational dreams.

But a Yogi- as stated by Lord Krishna, sleeps in a different way. A yogi is someone, who through meditations and spiritual awareness has become superconscious and knows that he is much more than a body. He is not someone who can fill a tank of air in his lungs as these Yogasnas and mudras just prepare the body to delve into deep and long spells of meditations, Meditations which one day take his consciousness to a plane where he finds himself out of the realm of time and space breaching physical barriers of human body and feels in harmony with the whole existence.

So when a yogi sleeps only his body sleeps…he himself always remains there and so there are no dreams for Yogis. But when we sleep, everything shuts down and prevails the darkness and we lay there lifeless, totally unaware that we are sleeping. Same thing happens when we die…everything shuts down and we never become aware that we are dead. Everything just vanishes, halts. We always lose consciousness before death and so enter this new territory unaware, sleeping.

If someone can remain conscious while sleeping then he also enters death fully conscious. Lord Krishna calls such a person a Yogi.

But when we will die, there will no remorse and pain because we won’t be there to feel all this. 

Here I remember the life of one of India’s great sage…Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950). In his youth…he was fascinated by spiritual world and was on his spiritual journey to know the ultimate. One day, when he was 17, while in his room…a sudden and strong fear of Death caught him from nowhere. He felt a strong wave inside him saying he was going to die. He really felt that death was coming to him then. But he didn’t tremble with fear…instead he thought…if i am going to die then what it will be like? Whether I will survive and only this body will die? What death actually means? With these thoughts he lay down on the floor and let loose his body like a dead man. He thought, “Now I am dead. So my body will now be burnt. But will it stop me from existing? At present this body is just lifeless and silent…but “I” am still alive in this body with same full force…nothing has changed for me…I can still feel “I” in the same way…only bodies die not WE…I am not the body…I am the spirit”.

In that moment…Maharshi felt the presence of his real self separate from body and the next moment he was changed…Birth of the Maharshi took place. People say that he perceived the ultimate reality without doing tough Sadhanas and meditations. Truth unfolded to him directly.

But I don’t agree with this…that was the not his only life…it was the latest in the series of lives he had lived in his previous births. He must have done great hard work for spiritual awakening in his previous lives…he had already crossed most of the distance of the journey. One more step and sun rises.

We can try this in our rooms and I assure that nothing of that sort will happen…only sleep will come unto us.