According to BSE data, Concurrent’s OPM has shown a boost of 9.38% during the March quarter from 2.12% and 1.15% recorded during the December and September quarters, respectively

Concurrent (India) Infrastructure Ltd, earlier known as Kushagra Software Ltd, reported revenues of Rs65.1 crore and a net profit of Rs4.9 crore for the year to end-March 2010. Out of the total revenues, it earned Rs51.5 crore of its revenues from the March quarter alone. At the same time, Concurrent's expenses in this quarter were also its highest at Rs46.7 crore.
 
Surprisingly, during the December and September quarters of FY10, the company's total revenues were just Rs5.3 crore and Rs4.5 crore, respectively.
 
According to Koneru Sudhir Babu, the chairman and managing director of Concurrent who met Moneylife on Wednesday, in the March quarter, the company had added revenues from its infrastructure activities whereas in the previous quarters, its main business was software along with a few infrastructure projects.
 
However, with the kind of jump in revenues in the March quarter, Concurrent's earnings per share (EPS) rose to 1.1 from 0.02 and 0.01 recorded in preceding quarters. Similarly, according to BSE data, the company's operating margins (OPM) have shown a hike of 9.38% during the March quarter from 2.12% and 1.15% recorded during the December and September quarters, respectively.
 
Although strict comparison of Concurrent with other infrastructure companies is not possible, let's see how one of its peer group companies has performed. During the December quarter, Brahmaputra Infraproject Ltd had total revenues of Rs59.2 crore and net profit of Rs4.1 crore translating into an EPS of 5.84 and OPM of 11.35%. In the quarter to end-September, Brahmaputra recorded total revenues of Rs43.9 crore; net profit of Rs3.2 crore; EPS of 4.56 and OPM of 13.1%.
 
During the five quarters from December 2008 to December 2009, Brahmaputra has recorded an average OPM of 12.6%. Concurrent, on the other hand, has recorded an average OPM of 1.7% during the reported preceding quarters, excluding the March quarter. When you include the March quarter performance, Concurrent's average OPM for the five quarters rises to 3.26%. (There are no financial records of Concurrent for almost a year from September 2008 to September 2009).
 
Concurrent also does not provide balance sheets for any reporting period. When we clicked on the 'quarterly results' link on its website, we were transferred to its results page on the BSE site. The company has promised to send a copy of its balance sheet to Moneylife and said it will also make the same available on its website for all investors.
 
Separately, Mr Babu denied having any knowledge of the bunch of investors (mentioned in our previous article, read here: http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/6391.html). Contrary to the claims made by Arun K Mukherjee, self-styled stocks guru, Mr Babu said that he does not even know him and had never interacted with him. He, however, said he had a discussion with some investors, after he took over the company, and Mr Mukherjee may have been present there.

Some readers, who had commented on our previous article, wanted to know about Concurrent's projects. Although we discussed the same with Mr Babu, we think it is apt for the company itself to disclose this information through the regulatory channel.

Meanwhile, Concurrent shares continued their downward journey on Wednesday as well. The share hit the lower circuit and closed 4.8% down at Rs26.65 while the benchmark Sensex ended the day 0.04% down at 17,743 points.