The Hindu Business Line : MMTC declares 25 pc interim

MMTC has declared an interim dividend of 25 per cent for the year 2005-06 taking the overall dividend declaration of the company since inception to a total of Rs 341.28 crore to the Government of India on its equity investment of Rs 3 crore.

According to a company release issued here, during the first nine months of the current fiscal, MMTC achieved a business turnover of Rs 11,291 crore - the highest ever achieved by MMTC in nine-month period.

This business turnover includes highest export and domestic trade performance, which exceeded previous year's levels by 5 per cent and 114 per cent respectively.

The marginal decline in import business, however, has been due to higher prices of gold/silver adversely affecting their offtake besides decline in prices of some of the items traded such as pig iron, coke, coal, manganese/chrome ore etc. Shortfall on this account was to a large extent met by higher business in other items.

The coal and hydrocarbons, fertiliser and the metals groups of the company registered a growth of 16 per cent, 79 per cent and 22 per cent respectively over the corresponding performances of the previous year, thus leaving a minor gap which is expected to be made good in the next quarter.

MMTC, with a net worth of over Rs 830 crore and zero long-term debt, has secured earnings per share of Rs 15.84, which on an annualised basis translates into Rs 21.12 earning per share of Rs 10 face value each.

While announcing the results for April -December, 2005 period in the company's board meeting held on January 25, the MMTC Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Mr S.D. Kapoor, attributed this performance to the company's strategic initiatives in logistics, service quality, resources management and other like aspects of its functioning.

With a view to facilitating creation of trade related infrastructure and lowering of transaction costs, it is already in the process of establishing free trade and warehousing zones at five locations across the country for which the SPVs to undertake projects at Greater Noida and Kandla have since been incorporated.

Moreover, the company has placed orders for acquiring railway rakes under the "Own your wagons scheme" of the Indian Railways.

The company is also pursuing acquisition of coal blocks and setting up of a cold chain. MMTC would continue to pursue these efforts for achieving consistent growth rate and develop trade related infrastructure in future to further strengthen its base so as to provide value-added services and sustainable returns to its stakeholders, the company release said.