IdeaForge Shares Trading Lowest Since Listing After Reporting 54% Decline In PAT

Shares of the listed drone startup IdeaForge slipped 6% to INR 1,008.05 on the BSE in Wednesday’s intraday trade after the drone maker announced its first quarterly results since its stock market debut last month, the lowest since its market debut on July 7.

The stock has been on the decline for the past six trading sessions, falling 13% during the period. Currently, IdeaForge shares are trading at INR 1,015.70 apiece as of 01:42 PM on Wednesday (August 9). The market price of the company has corrected 25% from its record-high level of INR 1,344 touched on listing day.

However, the stock is still trading around 50% higher than its issue price of INR 672 per share, having listed at INR 1,300 on the BSE, a 94% premium over the issue price.

The share price failed to rally despite the drone startup announcing bagging an INR 88 Cr order from the Ministry of Defence for the supply of surveillance quadcopters with accessories.

The development comes after IdeaForge reported a 54% year-on-year (YoY) decline in its consolidated profit at INR 18.86 Cr for the April-June 2023 quarter (Q1 FY24) as against INR 41.25 Cr in the year-ago quarter (Q1FY23). The company had reported a loss of INR 5.42 Cr in the previous quarter (Q4FY23).

Revenue from operations was down 2.2% YoY to INR 97.07 Cr from INR 99.27 Cr. However, on a sequential basis, the company’s revenue from operations grew 151% from INR 38.66 Cr in Q4FY23 with an EBITDA margin of 3.1%.

“Given the nature and nascent stage of the drone industry in our country, our business performance is not immediately comparable on a quarterly basis,” Ankit Mehta, the CEO of ideaForge, said.

After the results were announced, the CEO said that IdeaForge has made ‘notable strides’ in its ability to innovate by introducing products engineered to serve a wide ambit of use cases.

“The launch of the new Netra V4 Pro UAV as well as initiating the development of UAV logistics platform are a testament to this fact. Aligning with the sectoral opportunities, we are actively pursuing new product development and business models,” said Mehta.

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