Sona Comstar collaborates with NASSCOM to enhance

Sona Comstar collaborates with NASSCOM to enhance digital skills of their employees through FutureSkills Prime

Sona BLW Precision Forgings Limited (Sona Comstar), India's leading automotive technology company, is collaborating with FutureSkills Prime – a MeitY-NASSCOM Digital Skilling Initiative to upskill its employees/workforce in cutting edge digital technologies with industry-relevant and government recognized curriculum based courses.

FutureSkills Prime is the first-of-its-kind public-private cooperation between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NASSCOM to create a digital skilling ecosystem for India's citizens. The objective is to reskill/upskill graduates and professionals in emerging technologies and professional skills to make India a global digital talent nation in the coming years.

Sona Comstar aims to upskill its employees to be ready to face the digital revolution across multiple functional areas. FutureSkills Prime is dedicated to advising and encouraging Indian professionals to play motivating, valuable, and purposeful roles in a future brimming with opportunities made possible by cutting-edge digital technologies.
 

Mr. Vivek Vikram Singh, Group CEO, Sona Comstar commenting on the initiative, said, "We are proud to be the part of the enterprise by Government of India and NASSCOM. As the world, especially manufacturing, rapidly transitions from the Industrial Age to the digital age, the skills required have also evolved. The advancement of technology and digital transformation compels up-skilling as the natural progression towards a promising future. As an automotive technology leader, it is our  endeavor to up-skill our workforce at this juncture.".

Mr. Kiran Manohar Deshmukh, CTO, Sona Comstar, said, "We are rapidly moving towards digital transformation. A lot of the workforce is not prepared for change at such a scale, and we need to reskill our workforce—especially managers, engineers, and executives—according to the changing needs of the industry." He further added, "The digital transformation will not only be rapid, but it will also proliferate across all facets of manufacturing. Therefore, there is a need to have 'digital literacy’ among the entire workforce. Going forward, we also plan to  work with NASSCOM to develop and curate the content suitable for the shop floor employees and other front-line associates in the manufacturing sector."

FutureSkills Prime promotes skilling through Foundation, Bridge and Deep Skilling courses across technologies. The focus remains on digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IoT, Cloud Security, Python, Design Thinking, etc., and few soft skills like Creativity, Critical Thinking, etc. NASSCOM will continue to provide some new content regularly throughout the program.

On the collaboration, Mr. Navanit Samaiyar, Head, Market Development and Learner Success, NASSCOM FutureSkills said, "With technology proliferating industries, and the world moving towards digitized existence, it is essential that we arm the workforce across sectors to be future-ready with critical tech & professional skills. Upskilling in emerging technology is an armour that the workforce needs to not just meet the challenges of a digital-first world but to thrive in it. This initiative, by Sona Comstar, to upskill their workforce is a first in the automobile industry. In that respect, Sona Comstar is a visionary leader in recognizing the benefits of enabling a culture of learning tech. This will not only benefit the company but will be an example for others in the automobile industry where tech is already married to automobiles. This partnership will help FutureSkills Prime get closer to the vision of making India a digital talent hub. We are enthused and extend our support to enable the upskilling of the workforce of Sona Comstar in this collaboration."

 

Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd. announces

 Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd. announces Q1 FY22 Results

Revenue grows 226% YoY to Rs. 5,007 million, Revenue share from BEV increases to 19.9%

EBITDA higher by 375% YoY to Rs. 1,387 million, EBITDA Margin at 27.7%

PAT of Rs. 822 million, Annualised Q1 FY22 RoCE of 35.3%

Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd. (Sona Comstar), a leading automotive technology company providing mission critical systems and components for electrified and non-electrified powertrain segments, today announced its financial results for the quarter ended June 30^th, 2021.

Key Financial Highlights – Q1 FY22    

·        Revenue of Rs. 5,007 million with 226% YoY growth; 19.9% revenue share from BEV

·        EBITDA of Rs. 1,387 million with 375% YoY growth; EBITDA margin of 27.7% vs. 19.0% in Q1 FY21

·        PAT of Rs. 822 million

·        The net order book* stands at Rs. 140 billion as of June 30^th, 2021

Management Comment

Commenting on the performance, Mr. Vivek Vikram Singh, MD & Group CEO, said: “We are delighted to report a strong performance in our first earnings announcement as a listed entity. Despite headwinds, we have delivered robust revenue growth and best-in-class profitability and return metrics. We continue to make significant progress on our strategic imperatives of increasing electrification, global market share, diversification, and product innovation. Our net order book stands at Rs. 14,000 crores as of June 30^th, 2021 of which 57% is from EV.”

 

Operational Highlights – Q1 FY22

Electrification:

·        BEV Revenue Share: Revenue from Battery EV was Rs. 967 million and contributed 19.9% of total revenue as against 13.8% in FY21.

·        EV programs: The number of awarded programs increased to 17 across 10 different customers.

 

Increasing Global Market Share:

·        Differential Gears: Global market share increased to 6.0% in H1 CY21 from 5.0% in CY20.

·        Starter Motors: Global market share in light vehicles increased to 4.6% in H1 CY21 from 3.0% in CY20.

Product Diversification:

·        Our journey from components to sub-systems and systems continues to progress, as revenue share of differential assemblies increased from 17.6% in FY21 to 23.5% in Q1 FY22.

 

Key Developments:

·        Successful listing on NSE and BSE on June 24, 2021.  

·        Partnership with Israel's IRP Nexus Group Ltd (IRP) for a unique joint development project to develop a magnet-less powertrain, manufacture it and market it globally:

o   Under this project, Sona Comstar and IRP have collaborated to conceive, design, prototype, and manufacture high efficiency, low-cost, magnet-less powertrain (motor + controller) for electric two- and three-wheelers for the global market. IRP will license its technology to Sona Comstar for manufacturing of the system exclusively in India.

Sona Comstar Retail book fully

Sona Comstar Retail book fully subscribed on Day 2

Sona BLW Precision Forgings Limited (Sona Comstar), one of India’s leading automotive technology companies; received bids of 2,91,25,182 shares against the offered 10,71,05,262 equity shares, as per the 5:00 pm data available on the bourses.

The portion reserved for retail investors was subscribed 1.02 times. While the Qualified Institutional Buyer category was subscribed 0.14 times, the Non-Institutional Investor category was subscribed 0.04 times. 

The total size of the offer is Rs. 5,250 crores at the upper price band of Rs. 291 per share.

The Company raised Rs. 2,498 crores through 42 anchor investors.

Key brokerage houses like Angel Broking, Canara Bank Securities, Motilal Oswal, ICICI, Nirmal Bang Hem Securities, IndSec Securities and Ventura have given recommendations of "Subscribe" to the issue for long term perspective while highlighting the key strengths of the company like strong clientele, niche diversified and high margin product portfolio. derives ~40% of its revenues from high growth areas like Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Hybrid Vehicles. It is among the top 10 players globally for differential bevel gears and for starter motors for the PV segment. 

It had 5% market share for differential bevel gears, 3% for starter motors and 8.7% for BEV differential assemblies. They have a diversified customer base across the globe with 75% of their income (sale of goods, FY21) coming from end-use in overseas markets. Emphasis on R&D is one the strongest aspects of the company. With EV’s gaining ground with Sona Comstar is poised to gain from this segment. Also, it has never lost any customers since its inception.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, Credit Suisse Securities (India) Private Limited, JM Financial Limited, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited are the Book Running Lead Managers (“BRLMs”) to the Offer.

Company Information

Sona Comstar, a Blackstone backed company, is primarily engaged in designing, manufacturing and supplying highly engineered, mission critical automotive systems and components to automotive OEMs. Sona Comstar is a leading supplier to the fast-growing global Electric Vehicle (EV) markets and derived 13.8% revenue from the Battery EV market and 26.7% from the Micro Hybrid / Hybrid market in FY21. Its global market share of BEV differential assemblies in calendar year 2020 was 8.7%. 

The company is among the top ten players globally in the differential bevel gear market and in the starter motor market on the basis of respective volumes supplied to its end segments in calendar year 2020 and has been gaining global market share across products. According to the Ricardo Report, it serves 6 of the top 10 global PV OEMs, 3 out of top 10 global CV OEMs and 7 out of top 8 global tractor OEMs by volumes. 

The company has strong R&D, engineering and technological capabilities in precision forging, mechanical and electrical systems, as well as base and application software development. It is diversified across geographies, products, vehicle segments and customers. 

According to the Crisil Report, the company has the highest operating EBITDA margin, PAT margin, ROCE and ROE in FY20 as compared to top 10 listed auto component manufacturers in India by market capitalization and has consistently delivered more than 26% EBITDA margin and more than 35% average ROE each year over FY19-21. Its operating income growth over FY16-20 has exceeded the average of the same peer set.

Sona Comstar inaugurates state-of-the-art differential assembly

 Sona Comstar inaugurates state-of-the-art  differential assembly manufacturing facility at Manesar

·         Company plans to invest over Rs.370Cr in the new manufacturing facility

·         We expect this to generate direct employment for 720 skilled workers

 

Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd. (Sona Comstar), one of India’s leading automotive systems & components manufacturer, today inaugurated a state-of-the-art differential assembly manufacturing plant at Manesar, Haryana.  The plant manufactures Differential Assemblies and e-Drive Modules for its global customers, furthering the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Make in India for the World’. 

 

The facility is spread across 5 Acres and is expected to generate direct employment for 720 skilled workers and indirectly create thousands of more downstream jobs.

 

On this occasion, Mr Sunjay Kapur, Chairman, Sona Comstar said, “We are very pleased that our latest manufacturing facility has started its operations. This facility was built with the intention to focus on manufacturing differential assemblies for our EV customers globally. We have used state of the art technology and processes in this plant to meet the stringent quality requirements of our customers.”

 

The new facility is located at Manesar which is a preferred manufacturing destination on the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and provides seamless connectivity via road and rail with seaports on the western coast.