The Hindu Business Line : Rossell Tea plans foray into aviation sector

Progress report
Has recently transferred the running and maintenance rights of one of the five tea gardens in Assam to a wholly owned subsidiary of its.
The shareholders have also approved a venture in the hospitality sector

Kolkata , July 3

Rossell Tea Ltd belonging to the Delhi-based Mr Harsh M. Gupta is finalising the details of its proposed foray into the aviation sector and a formal announcement is likely to be made soon.

The company, which owns five tea gardens in Assam, has recently transferred the running and maintenance rights of one such garden to a wholly owned subsidiary of its.

Talking to Business Line, Mr Harsh Gupta said, activities on the new aviation business are "moving favourably and in the right direction".

He, however, preferred not to disclose anything further.

Instead he said, "Something more concrete would emerge by the end of this month or early August. Only then I would formally announce it."

Shareholders nod

The shareholders of Rossell Tea had already cleared the company's foray into this new business in the last annual general meeting.

A venture in the hospitality sector was also approved in that meeting.

It might be noted that one of Mr Gupta's group companies is BMG Enterprises Ltd. It is based in Delhi and it operates as an aviation consultant and also exports aircraft parts. While discussing on the foray into the aviation sector, the management of Rossell Tea had said that the group has enough expertise in this sector and it would help the company to insulate from the vagaries of commodity business.

Rights transfer

In its existing tea operations, Rossell Tea has transferred the maintenance and running rights of Borahi Tea Estate to Jyoti Holdings Pvt Ltd. It was first done during October 2004 to December 2005. A similar fresh arrangement was made from February 1, this year.

According to Mr Gupta, the rationale behind this arrangement is better logistics management. The four others gardens still remains with the parent company.

Faring well

Meanwhile, for the quarter ended March 31, Rossell Tea's total income increased to Rs 6.87 crore from Rs 5.95 crore. Net loss dropped to Rs 5.46 crore from Rs 6.62 crore.

For the year 2005-06, the company's total income dropped to Rs 43.44 crore from Rs 48.51 crore.

Against a net profit of Rs 2.19 crore in 2004-05, Rossell ended the last fiscal with a net loss of Rs 2.50 crore.

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