Uti Quiz Show Opens With Reliance

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) managing director Anil Ambani yesterday kicked off a series of presentations by domestic corporates to the Unit Trust of India, with a presentation to top officials of the UTI, Life Insurance Corporation and General Insurance Corporation.

UTI has asked leading corporates to make presentations outlining their plans and expected performance.

"We have asked all companies in which we have a sizeable stake to make a presentation to us after the declaration of their half-yearly results," a senior UTI official said.

Senior UTI officials said corporate presentations would now become a regular exercise. "We have started it and want to ensure a higher level of corporate governance and give confidence to our unitholders," said a top UTI official.

Other leading corporates that will make presentations to UTI in the next few weeks include Larsen & Toubro, BSES, Grasim, Telco, Tata Steel, Indal, ITC and Bajaj Auto.

UTI is yet to ask public sector monoliths like IDBI, SAIL, BPCL, HPCL ONGC, IOC, MTNL and VSNL to make presentations to it.

"They are normally the last to declare their half-yearly results, so we have not asked them yet. But we are not restricting this exercise to private companies," said the official.

According to UTI officials, during the presentation, the companies will be asked their plans for the rest of the fiscal and how they expect their financial performance to be.

In the medium to long term, UTI wants to know how companies plan to remain competitive. "We want to know exactly how the companies will remain competitive and if any restructuring needs to be done for this, when and how it will be done," said the official.

At yesterday's presentation, RIL officials said they expect domestic demand to grow by 15-20 per cent. However, their operating margin in the short-term is expected to come under pressure due to petrochemical supplies from companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

However, RIL officials feel that termination of some upcoming petrochemical projects in the Asian region may restore the demand-supply balance sooner than expected. RIL's production volumes are expected to cross six million tonnes in 1998-99. Its paraxylene and polypropylene projects in Jamnagar are on schedule and are slated to be commissioned in 1999. Production volumes are expected to increase by 50 per cent to nine million tonnes by 2001, the officials said.