As per my understanding the company and the management had some plans as to how they are going to grow thier non winter products and become an all weather fashion retailer. That would have rerated the stock as it was quite cheap compared to peers. And that was the precise reason for my investing. But there was a major risk which has actually played out in last few quarters. That was the execution risk.
I had highlighted after Q4 FY 23 results, how working capital is getting stretched and the cash flows are not able to service the debt obligations (which led to further increase in short term borrowing). I exited the stock completely after Q1 FY 24 and accepted humbly that my thesis has been broken, when there was no reversal in this trend of ever increasing short term loans. Even after my last post, the short term loans has increased from 195 crores to 350 crores by Q2 FY 24. That led to further rise in interest cost and even less profit. Still i was able to make 30% profit in my total holding period of about 6 months.
So, what is the learning here? How did i got saved even after the story which i was playing, fall flat on my face? What saved me here is the cheap starting valuations. The story of monte carlo becoming an all season fashion retailer with good growth was not baked into the price at the time of my buying (it was always cheap). Thatswhy we say in investing, the optionality makes you the money (if gets played out) and the cheap starting valuations saves your capital even if the optionality does not play out.
Disclosure: not invested (found better opportunities in retail sector like Aditya vision, Senco gold and Redtape), somebody who is still invested or looking to buy now must track the working capital and cash flow trends from here very critically.
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