ideaForge share tanks 10% on poor Q2 results

Homegrown drone maker ideaforge Technology Ltd shares fell 10% in intra-day trade today after the company's poor performance in the July-September quarter.

The stock opened a gap down at ₹796, against the previous session close of ₹872.8 and fell to an intra-day low of 785.35 on the BSE. At the current share price of ₹817.5, the scrip of the aerospace & defence company is trading 6.34%, down as compared to the last closing price, taking its m-cap down to ₹3,451.10 crore. Since its public listing in July 2023, the drone marker’s share price has fallen 37.5%.

The company recorded a 77.6% year-on-year (YoY) fall in its net profit for Q2 FY24 at ₹89 lakh compared to 3.9 crore in the same period last year. In the first quarter of the fiscal year, ideaForge had reported ₹18.8 crore profit.

The company's profit margin also slipped to 3.2% in Q2 FY24 as compared to 9.8% in the year-ago period and 19.4% in the April-June quarter of the fiscal year. EBITDA and EBITDA margin also fell to ₹7 crore and 29.7%, respectively, in the said quarter. Its revenue also dipped 41% to ₹23.7 crore as compared to ₹40.2 crore in the year-ago period, and ₹97 crore in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

Revealing the quarterly numbers via stock exchanges, ideaForge said the company bagged new orders worth ₹169 crore during Q2, and the revenue contribution from civil business recorded an increase in the quarter.

"This quarter has been a building phase for ideaForge. Our vertically integrated operations along with indigenisation efforts helped us retain control over the quality and reliability of delivered mission-critical UAVs. We have strengthened out operations to gear up for the deliveries in the next few quarters and meet our annual revenue target. The order book has improved on the back of new orders received in this quarter," says Ankit Mehta, CEO, ideaForge.

Mehta adds the company continues to expand the horizons of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology. “Progress in the development of middle-mile logistics, tactical, next-gen quadcopter UAVs and development efforts towards refreshing existing quadcopter and hybrid VTOL platforms will provide an edge to ideaForge and propel the growth in times of come.”

Shares of ideaForge Technology had made a stellar debut on the stock exchanges in July 2023, with the share price listing at ₹1,305.10 on the BSE, a premium of 94.2% against the upper end of the IPO price band of ₹672. Post listing, ideaForge share price had risen as much as 100% to ₹1,344, but since then the scrip has seen a huge fall.

The ₹567-crore initial public offering (IPO) of IdeaForge was subscribed 106 times on the back of strong responses from qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) and retail individual investors. As of March 31, 2022, ideaForge Technology had a total assets of ₹487.9 crore.