Dunlop India resumes trading on bourses

Dunlop India today resumed trading on the stock exchanges at Rs 50, up by 657 per cent over the previous closing in 2002.

There were no sellers at the counter and the buy quantity stood at 11 lakh shares. Pawan Kumar Ruia, chairman Dunlop India said, “I have been trying for the last two and a half years to resume trading at the Dunlop counter and the beginning has been amazing.” Trading was suspended eight years back as the management had not paid listing fees.

Dunlop has 35,000 shareholders. Apart from the Bombay Stock Exchange, Dunlop is listed on Calcutta, Chennai, Delhi and Ahmedabad stock exchanges. Ruia said, “We might take a call on listing Dunlop on the National Stock Exchange and de-listing from the other exchanges.” The current promoters, who took over the company in 2005 hold a 74 per cent stake.

Ruia is expecting a robust growth in topline. In 2010-2011, a conservative estimate of the turnover should be Rs 600 crore. In 2008-09, the company’s turnover stood at Rs 178 crore.

The company has started production at its Sahagunj and Ambattur plants in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, respectively. Operations at Sahagunj came to halt last November after workers refused to accept the subsistence allowance Dunlop offered during a proposed stoppage of production due to the global slowdown.

The factory resumed operations late last year. However, Ruia expressed concern over rising rubber prices. He hoped prices would come down in the near term or it would affect the company’s bottomline. Rubber accounts for 30 per cent of the cost of production. At present, the capacity utilization is at 30 tonnes a day, but the company plans to ramp up over the next 3-4 months.