Carborundum To Sell Palakkad Unit Stake

Carborundum Universal Ltd (Cumi), a part of the Rs 3900 crore Murugappa group, has decided to enter new businesses even as it decided to sell its stake in Electrocast Refractory Unit at Palakkad, in a bid to accelerate 'profitable growth'.

The company has picked up 100 per cent stake in Net Access India Private Limited (Net Access), an Internet based business solutions provider, at an approximated investment of Rs 1.6 crore. Cumi has also acquired 68 per cent stake in Webword Holdings & Management Private Ltd. at a cost of Rs 18 crore.

Webword, which is involved IT enabled services for book publishing industry, provides services like e- publishing, data processing, data centre, data mining and data warehousing. Both the investments are likely to be completed by this year-end, the company stated in a press release.

 

The board, which met today, approved the sale of the Electrocast Refractory Unit at Palakkad engaged in the manufacture of electrocast refractories as a going concern to SEPR Refractories India Private Ltd, which is part of the Saint Gobain Group. The agreement for the sale is likely to be signed in November 2001.

Meanwhile, the company has reported a 6 per cent fall in net profit for the second quarter ended September 2001 to Rs 8.20 crore as against Rs 8.72 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. Turnover increased by 5 per cent to Rs 77.33 crore from Rs 73.53 crore in July- September 2001.

During the first half of the financial year, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 11.68 (Rs 11.87) crore on a turnover of Rs 139.39 crore (Rs 134.98 crore).