Yamaha Motors Gets Three-Member Board

The company's board now has only two members from the Escorts group -- the Escorts group chairman Rajan Nanda and Umesh Banerjee, vice-president, corporate finance, Escorts group.

Prior to Yamaha acquiring a majority stake in the erstwhile Escorts Yamaha Motor Ltd (EYML), the EYML board primarily consisted of representatives of the Escorts group, a company official said. In fact, the board of YMEL has now also been shrunk to the extent of three members, the source added.

The Escorts group now has a 26 per cent stake in YMEL. Before the Japanese partner became a majority owner in the joint venture -- in April this year -- both Escorts and Yamaha had a 50 per cent stake in EYML.

According to reports, YMEL is launching a four-stroke step-through bike in October this year. The new bike is expected to deliver a fuel efficiency of 80 km per litre.

Meanwhile, Escorts Ltd reported a 33 per cent increase in its net profit to Rs 112.35 crore in 1999-2000 compared with Rs 84.17 crore in 1998-99.

For the first quarter of the current fiscal, the company reported a 189 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 88.90 crore compared with Rs 30.80 crore in the corresponding period of he previous year.

Net sales of the company, however, dipped by around 17 per cent at Rs 268.91 crore during April-June 2000 as against Rs 323.88 crore in 1999. Total income increased by 13.6 per cent in the same period mainly due to an increase in other income.