Thermax continued to be propelled higher today on the strength of eye-pleasing results, that showed PBT surged 61%.

The scrip of the engineering company climbed 3.2% to Rs 207 on BSE in just one hour . It had hit a high of Rs 209.45 earlier. Around 44,000 Thermax shares were traded on BSE by then.

The stock has been northward bound on the bourses for over a year now and the strong results have only served to buoy the scrip further. The scrip surged 7.2% on Friday to Rs 200.55 after the company announced the results after trading hours Thursday. But it witnessed high volatility that day, having jumped 12.1% to Rs 209.75 at an earlier stage.

A spirited rise has been witnessed in the stock in the last one month, having gone up from Rs 137.15 on 28 April 2003.

Restructuring of operations, which included an exit from all non-core businesses, and cost cutting measures have brightened Thermax's financials. For FY 2002-03, Thermax's profit before tax and before extraordinary items surged 61% to Rs 69.22 crore from Rs 43.12 crore. Net sales went up 14% to Rs 554.61 crore from Rs 486.61 crore. Operating profit margins have gone up to 10.7% from Rs 9.5%.

The company's energy division performed quite well boosting its FY 2002-03 results. Thermax has two key divisions - energy and environmental engineering.

Energy accounted for 66% (Rs 365.08 crore, up 26%) of the company's revenues and 63% of PBIT (Rs 39.06 crore, up 61%) for the year ended 31 March 2003. Environment accounted for 34% (Rs 187.63 crore, up 2%) of the company's revenues and 37% of PBIT (Rs 22.94 crore, down 9%) .

Off late, correcting organisational imbalances and rightsizing of operations has been the major thrust of the company. Besides focusing on operational improvements, the management is also evolving strategies for top line growth that will come from new initiatives in energy and environment. This includes a channel management initiative, creating a model for services as a business and leveraging the company's engineering domain knowledge.

To beat the sluggish conditions in the domestic market, the company is focusing on the international market. It is also looking at newer international markets such as Russia, South East Asia, Thailand and Malaysia.

In the domestic market, Thermax plans to revamp the dealer network, cross-sell products and enter the services business to improve top line in the current year. The company has also initiated a comprehensive exercise in domestic and global sourcing for optimum purchase efficiency and improvement in supply chain management. This should help improve profit margins.

The company expects modest growth in the current year. Most of its businesses, other than the captive power business, are expected to grow by 15%. It is also working on a roadmap to attain cost leadership in its businesses and for enhancing customer value with solutions in heating, cooling, power, water and waste management, air pollution control and chemicals.