This Mukul Agrawal's stock bet plunged 20% today | Economic Times

NEW DELHI: Shares of Carlyle Group-promoted Sequent Scientific plunged 20 per cent in Wednesday's trade after reporting a disappointing set of June quarter results. Celebrated investor Mukul Agrawal held 1.05 per cent stake in this company as of June 30, which was valued at Rs 58 crore after Wednesday's steep fall. The API and formulation maker said its consolidated earnings after tax plunged 86 per cent to Rs 2.7 crore against Rs 19.40 crore in the year-ago quarter. Profit stood at Rs 23.50 crore in the March quarter.The company said the second wave of Covid impacted its operations in April and May in India. The operating performance was also hit due to the resurgence of cases in Brazil and EU. On the other hand, input cost increased for APIs, excipients, fuel and logistics. There were uncertainty and delays in material supplies. API demand was subdued; there was a slowdown in Spain and depreciation in Turkish Lira, it added.The stock fell 20 per cent to Rs 224.25 on BSE. Agrawal owns over 1 per cent stake in 44 stocks, valued at Rs 1,753 crore, as per publicly available data with Trendlyne.“The quarter gone by has indeed been the most challenging one, both from demand and execution perspective. We are pleased to report an over 15 per cent growth in our formulations business even as our API business reported a de-growth after many quarters of consistent growth," Managing Director Manish Gupta said. Revenue rose 8.53 per cent YoY to Rs 320.50 crore from Rs 295.30 crore in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin fell to 48.1 per cent, down 100 basis points over 49.1 per cent in the year-ago quarter. Sequentially, the margin fell 60 basis points over 48.7 per cent in the March quarter. Ebitda margin declined 460 basis points to 11.2 per cent from 15.8 per cent YoY.Gupta said despite a slower start to the year, his company stays confident and on track of achieving the financial and strategic objectives for the year."We expect strong recovery in our API business in the second half. Our strategy for API business continues to play out well as we continue to improve the quality of business with ever-increasing contribution of regulated markets business, which now stands at 72 per cent against 66 per cent last year," he said.