Multi Bagger: Nucleus Software Exports Ltd. Recommended Price Rs 52.60
Ashish Chugh, Investment Advisor Report Dated: Apr 02, 2009
Nucleus Software Exports Ltd. is a Delhi based company with over 20 years experience of Software development for the Banking & Financial Services industry. The company is focused on Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sectors (BFSI). The company has a 5 acres State of the Art Development Centre in Noida and employs over 2000 people. Besides Noida, the company has development centres in Singapore, Pune and Chennai.In the mid to late nineties and early two thousands, when most players in the software industry were focusing on low risk service model focusing mainly on the US markets, Nucleus Software chose to take the High Risk model of Product Development and focused on markets in Asia and Far East, the rewards of which have been accruing to the company over the past few years. Infact, the company’s products like FinnOne and Cash@Will command leadership positions in their respective product categories, with FinnOne becoming the world’s largest selling product in its product category.Nucleus has offices and subsidiaries across the globe – in Japan, Australia, Singapore, Netherlands, UAE, Hong Kong,Philippines and Korea. The company has four development centres globally. The company has a client list comprising of who’s who of the Banking & Financial sector.The company has been getting various accolades and awards from time to time, recent ones being :-a) The company’s product FinnOne has recently been ranked as World’s No.1 Selling Lending Software product by International Banking Systems (IBS), UK for the fourth consecutive year.b) The Annual Report and Accounts of the company for year ended March 31, 2008, have been adjudged as the BEST under the category 'Information Technology, Communication and Entertainment enterprises' of the 'ICAI Awards for Excellence in Financial Reporting', by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). A Gold shield will be awarded to the Company by ICAI.c) For the third consecutive year in 2008, the Company has been selected as one of the “Top 25 Companies Adopting Good Corporate Governance Practices”, by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI).d) For the second year running, the Company has been listed among “Top 15 Exciting Emerging Companies to Work For” by NASSCOM. Your Company has also been recognized under “Best Practices” for Performance Management System by NASSCOM for the year 2008.
Investment Rationale: Strong Order Flow inspite of Economic Slowdown – Inspite of the slowdown being witnessed across the globe, order flows for the company in the recent times have been strong and the company has added new customers. Nucleus bagged 8 new product orders and acquired 6 new customers for implementing 20 product modules of the FinnOne Suite & Cash@Will in the third quarter of year 2008-09. Product orders were bagged from leading financial institutions in Middle East, South East Asia, India & US. Consolidated for nine months ending December 31, 2008, Nucleus has won 20 new customers and 25 new product orders for implementing 84 modules of FinnOne and Cash Management Suite. The order flow continues in the Jan-Mar 09 quarter too as is evident from various announcements made by the company to the Stock Exchanges in recent months. Despite global recession, the company has not lost any clients.Insulated from US Markets - The company derives just about 1% of its total revenues from the US markets and is largely insulated from the happenings in the US Financial markets. The company thus may not get significantly impacted by the collapsing Banks & Financial Institutions in the US.Cash is King – The company has Cash and Bank Balance of over Rs 100 cr. The total market cap of the company currently is about Rs 170 cr. The core business is thus going at very attractive valuations. Moreover, the company carries no secured or unsecured loans on its balance sheet and is totally debt free.The stock of Nucleus Software has fallen from a high of Rs 600 witnessed in 2007 to a current price of around Rs 50. Even though, the slowdown in the world economy and the margin pressure being witnessed by the company may be some of the factors which have taken a toll on the stock price, we feel that the stock of Nucleus Software has been battered primarily on account of the perception factor – when you think of a software company catering to the Banking & Financial Institution sector, the first thing which comes to an investors mind is US and the crumbling Banks, Financial Institutions and Insurance companies there – a closer scrutiny of the company shows that contribution from US is just about 1% of the total revenues of the company.Besides the pressure on margins being witnessed by the company, one of the reasons for lower profits was Forex losses of Rs 9 cr in the 9 months of the current FY, which may not be of recurring nature. The company has actively taken cost cutting measures and rationalization of resources, the impact of which we believe will show in the coming quarters.
We believe that this debt free company, having Cash and Bank Balance of over Rs 100 cr available at a market cap of Rs 170 cr is attractively valued at the CMP.Investors can choose to accumulate the stock at the current price and on declines.
Source: Internet (By Ashish Chug)
