Andrew Yule declares first dividend since 1994

Diversified firm, Andrew Yule and Company Ltd (AYCL) on Saturday said it has declared its first dividend in 21 years for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015 as the firm's cashflow situation has improved.

It has announced a dividend of Rs. 5 per ordinary share.

The company was declared sick by the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in September 2004 after posting repeated cumulative losses.

It posted a net turnover of Rs.394 crore for 2014-15 against revenue of Rs.327 crore during 2013-14.

"This is the first time in 21 years that we have declared a dividend. After repeated losses till the fiscal year 2012-13, we now have an accumulated profit of Rs.20.38 crore. The cashflow situation has improved now," the company's chairman Kallol Dutta told media persons here while announcing the results for the last fiscal year.

During 2013-14, the firm posted an accumulated profit of Rs.7.42 crore from an accumulated loss of Rs.27.83 crore in 2012-13.

AYCL underwent restructuring during 2007-8 prior to which the accumulated losses hovered around Rs.432 crore.

Dutta said it will continue to remain within the purview of BIFR despite turning cumulative losses into accumulated profit.

Officials in the company said tea accounted for Rs.188 crore of the revenue in the period under review against Rs.183 crore during 2013-14 while its electrical wing contributed Rs.137 crore against Rs.110 crore.

"This year we'll be entering the green tea space and are in the process of setting up a factory in our New Dooars Tea Estate in north Bengal and in MIM Tea Garden in Darjeeling," said the company's director of tea S. Munshi.

Munshi said they are hoping to produce 2 lakh kg of green tea during the ongoing financial year and have set a target to produce 5 lakh kg of the tea's variant during 2016-17.

"Presently, green tea production is very minimal at around 50,000 kg. However, the green tea space is expected to boom and we are serious about it," he said.

AYCL is also in the process of finalizing land for setting up new higher capacity transformer factory in Chennai to make higher range of transformers.