Best Agrolife zooms 37% in 2 days after Ashish Kacholia buys 1% stake

On Tuesday, August 30, 2022, Ashish Rameshchandra Kacholia purchased 318,000 equity shares, representing 1.3 per cent stake in Best Agrolife for Rs 30 crore on the NSE, data shows.

Shares of Best Agrolife rallied 15 per cent to Rs 1,268.90 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Thursday’s intra-day trade. The stock zoomed 37 per cent in the past two trading days after investor Ashish Rameshchandra Kacholia bought 1 per cent stake in the company via open market.

On Tuesday, August 30, 2022, Ashish Rameshchandra Kacholia purchased 318,000 equity shares, representing 1.3 per cent stake in Best Agrolife for Rs 30 crore on the NSE, the bulk deal data shows. Ashish Kacholia bought shares at Rs 940.88 per share, the exchange data shows.

At 10:34 am; Best Agrolife traded 12 per cent higher at Rs 1,238, as compared to 0.60 per cent decline in the Nifty 50. Earlier, the stock had hit a record high of Rs 1,400 on November 4, 2021.

A research-driven firm, Best Agrolife is one of the fastest-growing agrochemical companies in India. It aims to provide modern, cost-effective, and eco-friendly crop-protection solutions across the globe. The company is known for manufacturing import substitutes of many active ingredients indigenously. Besides, BAL offers more than 70 formulations of insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and PGRs from in-house backward integrated technical manufacturing.

In April-June quarter (Q1FY23), the company posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (ebitda) of Rs 65.9 crore, up 82.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY), as against Rs 36.06 crore in Q1FY22. Ebitda margin, too, improved 14.2 per cent from 10.5 per cent, in a year ago quarter. That apart, the company’s profit after tax jumped 53.5 per cent YoY to Rs 40.1 crore, on the back of 34.6 per cent YoY growth in revenue of Rs 463.7 crore.

During the last quarter, the company launched first-of-its-kind proprietary ternary insecticidal combination — Ronfen. It is a single-shot solution that controls all sucking pests in various crops like cotton, chilly, vegetables, and many other segments. The initial response has been good and the management expects a pick-up in the current quarter.

Along with Ronfen and Tombo, the company also launched AxeMan (Dinotefuran 15 per cent + Pymetrozine 45 per cent WG).

"With its dual mode of action, it helps protect the rice crop from the devastating pest BPH, which develops high resistance against all agrochemicals. AxeMan provides healthy and vibrant tillers at the reproductive stage and helps in long-duration control and resistance management of BPH in paddy," the company said.