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ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU
MUMBAI, Sept 7: The Rs 1402-crore Sterlite Industries is planning to set up a greenfield copper smelter plan in Orissa with an investment of Rs 3,400 crore. The company has acquired around 2,200 acres of land for the project and has leased two bauxite mines to feed the plant, Sterlite's CMD, Anil Agarwal announced here today.
In order to finance the project, the cables and copper maker said that it has received the approval from international investment bank, Merrill Lynch for a $350 million unsecured loan to finance the project. "But because of the steady depreciation of the rupee, we have not decided whether we will take the Merrill loan or not," Agarwal said.
"We are in talks with the Indian FIs for the rupee component of the project besides would invest about Rs 1,000 crore as equity component,'' he said. The company has signed a technical agreement with the French company to set up the aluminium smelter and 675 mw captive power plant in Orissa, he said. Besides, Bechtel is in talks with the companyto construct the project, he added.
The company announced its financial for the fiscal ended June 1998. While its turnover rose 31 per cent to Rs 1402.11 crore (Rs 1071.44 crore), the company's net profit was up 23 per cent to Rs 156.67 crore (Rs 126.92 crore) during the period. The board of directors has announced a dividend of 85 per cent.
The performance improved mainly due to increase in production, Agarwal said. The earnings for share issue also increased Rs 35.25 from Rs 28.57.
"The 100,000 tpa copper smelter of the company, first in the private sector, commenced commercial production during the year. The current capacity usage of about 60 per cent should reach cent per cent within the next six months," he added. During 1997-98, copper contributed to about 60 per cent of sales of the company. The company has the largest share of over 40 per cent in the domestic copper market.
To meet the increasing demand, which is estimated to be about 2.70 lakh tonnes for the current year, the company hastaken steps to expand the capacity of copper smelter from 100,000 tpa to 150,000 tpa in the next two years, at an additional investment of about Rs 350 crore, he said.
During the current fiscal, the company's jelly filled telecommunication cable division achieved a growth of 75 per cent at 58 lakh conductor kilometre (lckm), while optical fibre telecommunication cable sales rose five folds.
Group company, Madras Aluminium's turnover also increased to Rs 221 crore while net shot up to Rs 50.21 crore.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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