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| Texmaco to foray into manufacturing Metro coaches |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata Jul 24, 2009, 00:58 IST |
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K K Birla group’s diversified infrastructure company Texmaco Ltd will foray into manufacturing of metro coaches besides manufacturing hi-tech wagons for exports.
It has already participated in tenders for the upcoming Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation(KMRC) project through its joint venture with the United Group Ltd of Australia(UGL), which in turn entered into a memorandum of understanding with a Japanese consortium led by Kawasaki that also includes global majors like Itochu and Toshiba. Texmaco-UGL will eventually form a joint venture with the consortium and would have a less than 50 per cent equity shareholding in the JV.
"We are planning to have a greenfield plant for manufacturing metro coaches and have surveyed a few sites as well. For the time being,the existing Texmaco premises would be used", said S K Poddar, chairman, Texmaco. The investment on the metro coach project could be to the tune of Rs200 to 300 crore.
"We have already been shortlisted for the KMRC project", informed R Maheswari, president and CEO of Texmaco. The size of the order is around 64 coaches as the KMRC authorities want to test the technology.
Besides, the Texmaco-UGL JV will also work on manufacturing hi-tech high payload steel wagons primarily for exports to markets like Australia. Poddar said that the JV targeted an income of Rs 400 crore in the first phase and would manufacture around 1,000 wagons to start with. Investment on the project could be up to Rs 100 crore. The JV will also manufacture locomotive bogie frames. Texmaco and UGL, one of the largest end-to-end rail technology solutions provider in Asia-Pacific, had joined hands for a 50:50 JV in 2007. The company has planned to raise up to Rs 200 crore to fund these new projects through the qualified institutional placement(QIP) route.
...profit drops 8.63 per cent
Texmaco Ltd posted an 8.63 per cent drop in net profit to Rs 20.85 crore during the first quarter of the current fiscal over the same period last year as prodcution flow was impacted for a part of the period on account of technical issues. Net sales during the quarter were down by 6.9 per cent to Rs 183.24 crore. "The Indian Railways ordered for new generation high payload SS BCNHL wagons that were urgently required in bulk by them. Certain design changes had to be made and as a result the production flow was impacted", informed R Maheswari, president and chief executive officer of Texmaco.
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