GMR Industries in the black

Increase in income and sugar prices by 10-15 per cent besides reduced expenditure and cost-effective measures enabled the company to post profit, GMR Industries managing director R Ramakrishnan said.  The expenditure for the quarter under review stood at Rs 40.03 crore, down 22.25 per cent, from Rs 51.49 crore during the same period last year.

The company plans to set up a 50,000-cubic metre plant at Raibhagh near Belgaum for manufacturing medium density fibre board made out of bagasse. The plant will come up on an investment of Rs 442 crore and comprise a sugar crushing unit, co-generation unit and a distillery among others. 

Meanwhile, construction of  the 3,500 tcd (tonne crushed per day) greenfield sugar complex at Haliyal in Karnataka has been completed while the 2,500-tcd cooperative sugar plant in Ramdurg that it took on a 25-year lease during the ensuing sugar crushing season would soon commence operations. The board has also approved the acquisition of Alagwadi Brajeswar Sugars Private Ltd in Raibhagh, Karnataka.

The company has announced plans for a Rs 250-crore rights issue to part fund its projects, said Ramakrishnan, who was recently elevated as GIL managing director. His predecessor V Raghunathan is now the chief executive officer of GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, the CSR arm of the GMR Group.