Hmt Eyes Turnaround By 2005

State-owned HMT Ltd, which has over Rs 300 crore of accumulated losses, expects to turn the corner by 2005.

M S Zahed, chairman and managing director, told newspersons at the National Machine Tools Show 2002 here that the losses were mostly contributed by its watch unit, and HMT was implementing a Rs 1,100 crore restructuring process that will put the company back on its rails by 2005.

Zahed said the machine tools division may start making profits from the current year as it expects major orders to come from exports. He said the division recently bagged a Rs 150 crore export order.

Zahed said with the industry slowing recovering, mainly because of expansion in the automotive sector, the machine tools division witnessed a 25 per cent growth last year to touch Rs 240 crore and the turnover was expected to touch Rs 300 crore this year. Over the next five years, the turnover will cross Rs 600 crore, he said.

He said the revival of the industry was likely to double the turnover of the holding company to around Rs 1,200 crore this year from Rs 600 crore last year.

Refusing to comment on the disinvestment initiated by the government, Zahed said the division accounts for 43 per cent share in the Rs 570 crore machine tools market.

Zahed said during 2001-02, the division exported 17,000 machinery units to the US, Australia, South East Asian and African countries and took up turnkey projects in Algeria and Nigeria.

He said the machine tools division has introduced several ISO 9001 certified products through and collaborations and research and division initiatives.