Upper Ganges Sugar To Seek Nod For 2:1 Bonus

K K Birla's Upper Ganges Sugar & Industries will seek the shareholders' approval to issue a 2:1 ordinary bonus shares at its forthcoming annual general meeting

The company will convert Rs 2.33 crore from its share premium account into capital and apply in paying up in full, at-par 23.26 lakh unissued ordinary shares of Rs 10 each.

Such bonus shares will be appropriated as capital and distributed among the ordinary shareholders of the company.

The company has said that, except unforeseen circumstances, the first annual dividend on the expanded capital after issue of bonus shares will not be less than 25 per cent.

The company has declared a 35 per cent dividend in 1996-97 at the rate of Rs 3.50 a share on ordinary shares of Rs 10 each. During the period the profit after tax of the company stood at Rs 6.3 crore, down from last year's Rs 7.73 crore.

Total sales amounted to Rs 165.64 crore against Rs 139.09 crore in 1995-96, while gross profits before depreciation was Rs 12.28 crore.

Meanwhile, the K K Birla group-controlled textile unit,Texmaco Ltd, is being run by the company under a working arrangement in partnership with The Hindustan Times Ltd and Sutlej Industries Ltd.

This mill has been closed since November 1996 according to a Supreme Court order, and is being relocated at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh.

This mill will be run by the partnership in which Texmaco Ltd has joined as a partner since December 1996 and the profit/loss sharing ratio of the company in the partnership will be 2.5 per cent.

The auditors of the company, S R Batliboi & Co, have said in their report that there are no stipulations for payment of loans given by the company to the tune of Rs 40.25 lakhs.