Gillette has consolidated its businesses in India post global merger with Procter & Gamble and has put in place a new distribution set-up for itself. In a worldwide merger, Procter & Gamble acquired shaving products’ company Gillette for about $ 55 billion. The integration has been completed successfully with Gillette India. Gillette India has put in place a new distribution structure, which has significantly increased Gillette’s direct coverage, enhanced wholesale coverage and help service more retailers.

Gillette currently operates in three segments, namely, grooming, oral care and portable products. Grooming segment includes blades, razors and toiletries. Oral Care segment includes toothbrushes and oral care products. Portable power segment includes batteries, torches. The grooming business of the company is growing dramatically and had sales of Rs 97 crore with PBT of Rs 29 crore for the first quarter.

The CMP of the stock is about Rs 870. The market capitalisation of the company stands at around Rs 2800 crore. The company earned an EPS of Rs 22 in 2006 (Calendar year). For the first three months, they have already earned Rs 9/sh. Going forward, Malkani expects the company to earn EPS of Rs 35/sh for 07.

The stock is majorly held by the promoters. The P&G group and Poddar family hold 88.8% of the stock and 11.2% is held by the non-promoters. Malkani believes that the stock is a prime candidate for an open offer, which should be at a significantly higher price. Also many of the MNC stocks like Castrol, Bayer Cropscience etc are getting re-rated by the market, which should augur well for the stock.

After touching the five-figure mark last year, the stock market hit a new milestone on 7 July with its Sensex crossing the 15,000-level for the first time ever.

Sensex took almost 143 trading sessions to cover this 1000-points journey from 14,000. This can be counted as the longest journey ever since Sensex infringed the 10,000-peak in February 2006.

Right against it, the shortest 1,000-point leap comprising of just 19 trading sessions when it scaled to 12,000 level in April 2006. If numbers are important, then there are only 80 sessions when market has traded above 14,000 levels.

30-share Sensex index of India crossed the key 15,000-point mark in intraday trade on 7 July for the first time.

BSE’s Sensex touched a new peak of 14,963.26, a few points away from the 15,000 mark on 5 July. Tbis is due to the global cues amid continued trade by foreign funds.

BSE index opened at 14,932.53 and rose further to 14,963.26, reflecting a net rise of 83.02 points as against 14,880.24 on 5 July.

On the same lines, the broad-based S&P CNX Nifty also recorded an upward curve by 11.35 points at 4,370.65 as against 4,359.30 on 5 July.

Besides China, the Asian markets showed firm trend early this morning. Analysts believe that attaining 15,000-level would be like a milestone. The buying support is favored by the banking and capital goods shares that made continuous efforts to moderate gains.