2003: Singareni Collieries Set To Rewrite History In Black

The state-run Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) is all set to wipe out its accumulated losses during the current financial year with a record breaking production of coal and profitability.

The company which went to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in 1997 with an accumulated losses of Rs 1219 crore started reporting turnaround performance since 1997-98, due to which the accumulated losses have come down to a level of Rs 261 crore at the end of March 2002.

With the company expecting to make a net profit of about Rs 450 crore on a turnover of Rs 3,300 crore for the current fiscal, SCCL will become the most successful turnaround public sector enterprise.

Briefing the achievements of the company in the last 6-7 years, T R K Rao, the executive director of SCCL, said that the turnaround was brought about by a series of initiatives that include the financial restructuring, improvent in production and productivity, selective mining to improve the quality of coal produced, competitive pricing of coal in the deregulated scenario since January 2000, and the increased awareness among 98,450 employees on the issues.

The 113-year old company, which operates 54 underground and 12 opencast mines spread over four districts in the state, has fixed a production target of 32.5 million tonnes of coal for the current fiscal, as against a production of 30.81 million tonnes during the last fiscal.

The company recorded a production of 22.46 million tonnes, as against a pro-rata target of 22.9 million tonnes, for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2002, the best ever in the history of the company.

The financial restructuring package approved in July 1999 the government includes a 10-year moratorium on payment of interest accrued on government loans of Rs 663 crore, and the infusion of fresh equity by the state and central governments to the tune of Rs 268 crore and 257.51 crore respectively in proportion to their 51:49 per cent stakes.

As part of the financial re-engineering exercise, SCCL discharged the high-cost government debt with low-cost debt from financial institutions to the tune of Rs 449 crore.