The Hindu Business Line : Coromandel Fert net up 63 pc; revamps board

COROMANDEL Fertilisers Ltd (CFL), part of the Chennai-based Rs 4,500-crore Murugappa group, has registered a growth of 128.45 per cent in turnover and 63.07 per cent in net profit for the third quarter of current fiscal year ended December 31, 2003.

According to the unaudited financial results taken on record by the CFL board here on Thursday, the company achieved a turnover of Rs 352.09 crore compared to Rs 154.12 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal and a net profit of Rs 10.29 crore (Rs 6.31 crore), yielding an EPS of Rs 4.05 (Rs 3.24) on an equity base of Rs 19.46 crore.

For the quarter under review, the company incurred an expenditure of Rs 316.59 crore (Rs 135.79 crore) and provided Rs 8.03 crore towards interest (Rs 3.55 crore), Rs 8.29 crore towards depreciation (Rs 3.92 crore), Rs 8.06 crore towards current taxation (Rs 4 crore) and Rs 0.83 crore towards deferred taxation (Rs 0.55 crore).

For the nine-month period ended December 31, 2003, the company achieved a turnover of Rs 895.48 crore (Rs 425.24 crore) and a net profit of Rs 31.63 crore (Rs 23.35 crore).

According to the CFL President and Managing Director, Mr R.S. Nanda, the order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court approving the scheme of arrangement for demerging farm inputs division of EID Parry and merging it with Coromandel was filed with the Registrar of Companies on December 1 last year, thus completing the process of merger.

The CFL board had issued and allotted 59.49 lakh equity shares of the company to the members of EID Parry pursuant to the scheme of arrangement approved by the High Courts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The company had acquired 47.82 lakh equity shares of Godavari Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd, constituting 14.94 per cent, under the open offer.

CFL now holds 1.76-crore equity shares of GFCL, amounting to 55.07 per cent of GFCL.

Reconstitution of board: In a press release here, the company said Mr R.S. Nanda, would be retiring from the services of the company on January 27 on attaining the age of retirement. The CFL Director, Mr M.V. Subbiah, has resigned from the board of directors of the company. The board has appointed Mr V. Ravichandran as President and Wholetime Director of the company and co-opted Mr M.M. Murugappan, Mr S. Viswanathan and Mr T.M.M. Nambiar as additional directors.