Forbes & Company Ltd - Stock Valuation and Financial Performance

Forbes & Company, established in 1919, is one of the oldest companies of the world that is still in business. The company traces its origin to the year 1767 when John Forbes of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, started his business in India. Over the years, the management of the company moved from the Forbes family to the Campbells, to the Tata Group and finally to the well known Shapoorji Pallonji Group; leaders in infrastructure, construction and real estate businesses, amongst many others.

Forbes & Company has three main businesses; namely engineering, shipping and logistics and business automation.

The company, listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, has an eminent board of directors and the day-to-day affairs of the company are managed by a senate of experienced persons.

Divisions

Engineering - Under this, the company manufactures precision tools and offers energy solutions. Forbes offers cutting tools under the brand name ‘Totem’. The product range is versatile and suited to various industrial applications.

• High Speed Steel Threading Taps (M2, M35 and M42 Steel)
• Carbon Alloy Steel Threading Taps 
• High Speed Steel and Carbon Alloy Steel Threading Round Dies and Hexagonal Die Nuts
• Solid Carbide End Mills and Drills
• Tungsten Carbide Rotary Burrs

The company has a technical collaboration and management support agreement with the world leader M A Ford, USA for developing, manufacturing and marketing solid carbide tools. The solid carbide tools plant is located in Aurangabad in Maharashtra and is one of the most modern plants in India. The company has a dedicated application selling department that addresses the customer's requirements from the concept stage to the finished product. This includes an advance application laboratory where the tool is designed, tested and developed.

The company is involved actively in providing innovative solutions for the process industry and other large manufacturing industries in the form of steam turbines and blowers-exhausters. Its steam turbines and centrifugal blowers are sourced from global leaders like Dresser-Rand and Gardner-Denver.

It serve a wide range of industry segments from refineries to chemical / process plants and sugar manufacturing units, pharmaceuticals, paper, food processing, oil production, carbon black, steel plants, cogeneration plants, etc. The company has relationships with customers like Bharat Heavy Electricals, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, KSB, Thermax, Cethar Vessels, and many more.

Products and Services

• Single Stage Turbines in the capacities of 0.5 HP to 4000 HP under both segments of API and Non API • Multi Stage Turbines in the capacities of 670 HP to 94000 HP under both segments of API and Non API • Centrifugal Blowers in the capacities of 40000 CFM • Erection and Commissioning Support â€¢ Integrated and Customized Solutions • After Sales Support from an experienced team of Engineers

The company operates a design and integration facility that offers customized solutions to every need of its customers and is equipped with latest computer aided design and maintenance software. The customized solutions include steam turbines integrated with gear box, lube oil systems, base frames, etc. as per the client’s requirement. The turbine system can also be integrated with centrifugal blowers for specific applications. The integration facility is well equipped with machineries and skilled technical persons.

Shipping and Logistics

Forbes Patvolk, the shipping division of Forbes & Company, is involved in shipping activities like liner agency, Forbes container line, container freight stations, multimodal transportation, logistics, feedering, tramp and chartering services.

Forbes Patvolk is a member of several national and international associations such as IATA, MANSA, AMTOI etc. The division has diversified into new business spheres such as container freight stations and ship owning.

With offices in all major ports, airports and inland dry ports, Forbes Patvolk has a presence spanning the whole of India. It has also obtained ISO 9001:2000 certification for its superior quality practices.

Liner agency is one of the core activities of Forbes Patvolk that provides world-wide container transportation on major long haul routes. The division is associated with reputed shipping companies such as Swire Shipping, MOL and APL. The liner agency has been successful in expanding its activities to reach a wider market and to source traffic from far hinterland.

Forbes Container Line Private Limited, a Singapore based 100% subsidiary of Forbes & Company, is the Non Vessel Operating Container Carrier (NVOCC) division of Forbes Patvolk. The company has reputed name within the shipping industry, has large inventory of containers, a world wide network of reputed agents, as well as a professionally managed marketing network. Its services include multimodal transport operations for both LCL groupage and FCL. The inventory includes all types of equipments in all the major ports and inland points of India.

The subsidiary also operates its own fleet of boxes and issues its own fully insured multimodal transport documents.

The logistics services of Forbes & Company is dedicated to providing multi-modal solutions based on customer needs. It also has a tie-up with Yusen through Forbes Yusen Global Logistics network for air cargo shipments world wide.

Business Automation

Forbes Technosys (FTL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Forbes & Company and a pioneer in transaction management and business automation. FTL has a diverse product portfolio consisting of transaction management solutions, services and networks and products for business automation.

FTL’s key market segments include banking & financial services, insurance, utilities (telecom & power) and central and state government organizations. The company has a pan-India presence with a direct sales network that is focused on key accounts and a channel network of over 100 partners that provide a countrywide footprint to service a customer base of over 25,000 customers. FTL products carry the ‘Bradma’ brand name, which is known for reliability and high service standards. FTL’s partners include global companies like IBM, HP, Epson, Citaq, GoldLeaf, Digital Check Corporation, Francotyp Postalia and TCS.

Transaction Management Offerings

• Solutions such as image based cheque processing solutions, self service kiosks for banking, telecom, power, airlines and government to citizen services, remote deposit solutions and rural ATMs, setting up electronic stamping and electronic franking networks for collection of stamp duty and postal franking respectively.
• Under services, the company offers cheque processing service centre in New Delhi for outsourcing of image based cheque processing by banks and system integration services for turnkey deployment of image based cheque processing solutions
• Under network, the company sets up dedicated self-service kiosk based networks for bill payment collection and a national third party self-service kiosk network for bill payment.

The Business Automation Group (BAG) of FTL is a major supplier of currency counting machines, MICR cheque encoders, currency sorters and counterfeit traceability solutions with over 25,000 satisfied customers for these products. The BAG has a pan-India presence and provides services to its clients through a large nationwide network of channel partners, supplemented by a direct support team.

The BAG is also the market leader in electronic cash registers, point-of-sale systems and solutions, hand-held mobile billing and ticketing solutions and application software for diverse retail environments, viz. restaurants, chain stores, department stores, etc. The group’s clients include all leading public and private sector banks, foreign banks, central and state government departments and leading retail companies.