110 Companies Back In The Black During Fiscal 1999-00

Of the total of 1,259 companies whose yearly results are available for the financial year ended March 31, 2000, as many as 110 (9 per cent) have reported a turnaround, backed by prudent cost-cutting, lower interest outgo and higher other income.

Turnaround stories include majors such as Godrej Soaps, Samtel Color, Gabriel, FCL Technologies (formerly Flex chemicals), Jindal Drilling, Hikal Chemicals and ITW Signode.

Godrej Soaps reported a net profit of Rs 24.1 crore for the year as against a net loss of Rs 29.9 crore in the previous year. The company reported excellent branded product sales during the second-half of the year. Further boost to its bottomline came after it reduced its exposure to commodity trading in the year.

 

Hikal Chemical posted a net profit of Rs 17.3 crore during the year as compared to a net loss of Rs 2.7 crore in the previous year. Commissioning of a new plant at Taloja producing a fungicide, thiabendazole helped the company to put on a better show. It had also acquired the running agro-chemicals manufacturing unit at Panoli from Novartis India during the year.

Gabriel India, an auto ancillaries major, managed to perform well with excellent topline growth of 17.7 per cent backed by a revival in demand from its user industries. Samtel Colour put on a good show boosted by the merger of Samtel Electro Devices.

ITW Signode, an industrial packaging solution company, managed to report profits with reduced interest payment of over 39 per cent. The company attributes the performance to tripling of exports sales and introduction of new products during the year. While FCL Technologies reduced its interest payment by 43 per cent for the fiscal.

However higher income from other sources helped some companies to post a net profit for the year. Majors such as Godrej Foods, SIP Industries and Premier Auto Electric and others like Coventry Coil-O Matic, Cinerad Communications, Ricoh India and Hindustan Breweries were the few that managed to report a turnaround with higher other income.