The Hindu Business Line : Visaka plans Rs 100-cr cotton spinning plant

VISAKA Industries Ltd (VIL), the Hyderabad-based cement asbestos products and yarn manufacturer, has decided to set up a modern cotton spinning plant near Hyderabad with an investment of around Rs 100 crore.

Addressing newspersons to announce the third quarter financial results here on Friday, the VIL Managing Director, Dr G. Vivekanand, said the cotton spinning facility, with a capacity of 50,000 spindles, would take off during the first quarter of the next calendar year.

Stating that the unit would be located near Hyderabad, he said a decision on the exact location would be finalised next week.

Confident of achieving an annual growth rate of 28-30 per cent during the next 3-4 years, the company is eyeing a turnover of over Rs 700 crore by March 2010, he said.

The company has already crossed a gross turnover of last full year (Rs 213 crore) during the first nine months of current fiscal at Rs 221 crore.

The net sales from operations during the nine months period ended December 2005 stood at Rs 216.55 crore compared to Rs 153.97 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal, recording a growth of 40.64 per cent. The net profit improved to Rs 15.1 crore (Rs 9.6 crore), representing a growth of 57 per cent.

Q3 net profit up 57 pc: For the quarter ended December 2005, the company posted a growth of 38.48 per cent in net sales at Rs 70.83 crore (Rs 51.15 crore) and 57 per cent in net profit at Rs 5.57 crore (Rs 3.54 crore).

VIL has commenced commercial production of fibre cement sheets at its Rae Bareli unit from January 1, taking the total installed capacity of fibre sheets to 4-lakh tonnes from 3.2-lakh tonnes.

The company is currently taking steps for setting up another unit at Vijayawada with an installed capacity of 1.1-lakh tonnes at an investment of Rs 30 crore. This project would take off by October this year, Dr Vivekanand said.