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ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU
MUMBAI, AUG 25: Cement major ACC is weighing options to generate funds by unlocking investments in non-core businesses, said Pallonji S Mistry, the company's chairman, at the company's annual general meeting for 1997-98 in Mumbai.
MUMBAI, AUG 25: Cement major ACC is weighing options to generate funds by unlocking investments in non-core businesses, said Pallonji S Mistry, the company's chairman, at the company's annual general meeting for 1997-98 in Mumbai.
"We will look at all businesses, concentrate on core businesses, and should get out of areas which are non-core," he said.
The country's largest cement maker, which has over the years several investments into unrelated areas such as tyres, float glass etc. The company has not yet decided definitely to disinvest, but it is one of the options being considered to generate funds.
When the company had diversified in the mid-nineties, the management had stated that these were efforts at absorbing the cyclic fluctuations of the cement industry.
ACC's recent investments include Rs 26.14 crore worth of investments in tyre manufacturing joint venture Bridgestone ACC Ltd, Rs 2 crore worth of investments in ACC Rio Tinto Exploration (formerly ACC-CRA Explorations Ltd), and Rs 17.95 crore worth of investments in Floatglass India Ltd. The total investments of ACC aggregate Rs 189.46 crore.
Commenting on the company's dismal performance in recent years, Mistry said that the fault did not lie with the company, but the general slowdown in the industry. In the same breath, the ACC chairman pointed out that it was unfair to compare the 62-year old ACC with relatively younger cement companies as it could not carry out the much required modernisation and expansion till 1989 due to the enforcement of strict regulatory regime by the Government of India.
"The significant advantages enjoyed by some of the newer and relatively more efficient units stem essentially from local subsidies from the subsidies provided by the concerned state governments and the technological advantages that could be incorporated in the units that came into operation in the last 10 years," Mistry said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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