India Foils Loans Spurt Rs 151.8 Cr

India Foils, a Williamson Magor group company, has witnessed its loans ballooning from by a whopping Rs 151.88 crore to Rs 245.19 crore in 1996-97 from Rs 93.31 crore in 1994-95.

While unsecured foreign currency loans from Citibank increased to Rs 49.36 crore last financial year from Rs 14 crore in 1995-96, its loans from other sources under the same head went up to Rs 63.25 crore from Rs 34.76 crore in the previous year.

At the same time, the company distributed loans in tune of Rs 34.80 crore to corporates in 1996-97 against Rs 4.21 crore in 1994-95. The company increased its investment in Metals Centre by Rs 7.45 crore and earned Rs 5.20 crore from sale of investments in Nestle India and Rupajulee Tea Co. It booked profit of Rs 7.68 crore from the sale of the above two scrips.

However, going by the cash flow statement of the company, it made a profit of Rs 8.79 crore from the sale of investments at Rs 11.04 crore, showing a difference of Rs 1.11 crore. The company officials were not available for comments.

Its gross financing expenses, excluding the lease rent, increased by 47 per cent to Rs 28.75 crore from Rs 19.61 crore during 1996-97.

The company's interest on bank borrowings increased by 79 per cent from Rs 11.91 crore to Rs 21.36 crore during the period under review.

During the period under consideration, the company posted a 4 per cent decline on the sales front. Discount increased by 212 per cent from Rs 1.14 crore to Rs 3.56 crore, while earnings in foreign currency decreased by 7 per cent from Rs 39.07 crore to Rs 35.85 crore. According to the directors' report in the 1996-97 annual report, various factors like price crash at the London Metal Exchange and lower average sales realisation are responsible for the poor performance.