Weak construction, real estate demand hurt Cera Sanitaryware

Cera Sanitaryware Ltd shares have slipped around 22% since mid-April over concerns of a slowing real estate and housing market. They had, however, touched an all-time high in April on expectations of upbeat revenue growth buoyed by the government’s cleanliness campaign—Swachh Bharat Abhiyan for building toilets.

It is the unorganized companies that have benefited from the programme so far, because of lower costs. “Only when the capacity of unorganized players reaches 100%, the organized players will get the benefit,” said Abneesh Roy, associate director, institutional equities, at Edelweiss Securities Ltd.

A few analysts have scaled down Cera Sanitaryware’s revenue growth forecast. They estimate around 16-17% revenue growth in the second half of FY16 compared with 18-20% guidance given by the management.