The Hindu Business Line : McLeod Russel announces 20% dividend

Kolkata June 4 Riding high on 107 per cent increase in profit at Rs 47.47 crore in 2006-07 (Rs 22.92 crore in 2005-06), the board of directors of McLeod Russel India Ltd announced 20 per cent dividend on Monday for the year under review.

Mr Aditya Khaitan, Managing Director, while briefing newspersons about the company's performance in 2006-07, pointed out that in the fourth quarter the company suffered a loss of about Rs 75.43 crore compared with Rs 77.22 crore (excluding depreciation write back of Rs 32.08 crore) in the same period of last year.

He said the fourth quarter loss was because there would be no production from the middle of December to the middle of March, even as the standing costs in the form of labour and other expenses would persist.

He, however, felt that the figures for 2006-07 reflected the impact of the amalgamation of Doom Dooma Tea Company with effect from April 1, 2006, and therefore not comparable with the figures for 2005-06.

The company experienced an increase of Rs 7 per kg on an average in the selling price of tea, contributing to higher PBDIT of Rs 89 crore (Rs 39 crore) on a total sales turnover of Rs 606 crore (including Dooma Dooma) as compared to Rs 511 crore in the previous year.

The company exported 25 million kgs of tea in 2006-07 (22 million kgs in 2005-06).

"In 2006-07, we posted highest ever export turnover of Rs 250 crore (including deemed exports)," he said.

Mr Khaitan pointed out that the profit from the sale of investments and proceeds from placement of shares under Qualified Institutional Placement enabled the company to reduce its debt burden during the year under review by Rs 160 crore to Rs 403 crore, comprising Rs 220 crore of working capital and another Rs 183 crore of term loans, and thus to improve the debt-equity ratio to 0.7 from 1.31 in the previous year. "In October-November we hope to reduce our debt burden further by another Rs 100 crore or so to improve the ratio to 0.5," Mr Khaitan observed.

More Stories on : Dividend Announcement | Tea | Financial Performance

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page