CMP: 660

Established in 1867 by two Scotsmen, George Stephen Balmer and Alexander Lawrie at Kolkata, Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. is a public limited company with 61.8% shareholding by Balmer Lawrie Investments Limited, a Government Of India company. Today, Balmer Lawrie has emerged as a multi-activity, multi-technology, multi-location conglomerate with global footprints - along with its joint Ventures, encompassing diverse interests in Manufacturing Sector via, Industrial Packaging, Grease & Lubricants, Performance Chemicals and Tours & Travel, Logistics Infrastructure & Services and Engineering & Technology Services.

Its Industrial Packaging segment manufactures plain steel, lacquer, composite, galvanized, asepton, and conical drums for the packaging of lubricating oils and greases, additives, transformer oil, chemicals and agro chemicals, food and fruit products, bitumen, and bitumen emulsion. The company’s Greases and Lubricants segment manufactures various greases and lubricants for cement plants, heavy engineering industries, Indian defense forces, Indian railways, integrated steel plants, jute mills, oil exploration companies, ports, secondary steel mills, ship building industries, mining complexes, and auto manufacturers. Its Leather Chemicals segment provides manufactures and markets performance chemicals for leather processing primarily in the form of fat liquors and syntans. The company’s Travel and Tours segment offers travel agency services. The company’s Logistics Infrastructure segment offers facilities for storage of containers, customs clearance, aggregation and segregation of long distance cargo, warehousing, and transportation to and from ports. Its Logistics Services segment provides air and ocean freight services, as well as air chartering, ship chartering, project logistics management, and express cargo movement services. The company’s Refinery and Oilfield Services segment offers mechanized tank and lagoon cleaning services; and vapour loss prevention services for tankages. Its Tea segment manufactures and sells various tea products.

Its Gross turnover has increased from 1377 Cr to 2390 Cr in the last 5 yrs and Profit from 70.2 Cr to 128.3 Cr (Approx) with a P/E of 8.4x and Mkt Cap of over 1000 and Book Value of 358 Crore the stock looks good. Balmer Lawrie & Company net profit rises 41.14% in the June 2011 quarter. It can be a dark horse buy on dips for long term It can be a multibagger.