Spic Maintains Status Quo, Q3 Net Down 51%

After a day-long meeting yesterday, the Spic board has decided to keep the organisation structure unchanged. A C Muthiah has taken over as the `full fledged' chairman of the company.

According to an official spokesperson, the board strength is down from 18 to 17 following the recent demise of chairman M A Chidambaram.

It is not clear if A C Muthiah has relinquished the president's designation or if the post of vice-chairman and president that he held earlier has been given the go-by.

Ashwin Muthiah continues to be a director on the company's board.

Until the mid-90s, Spic did not have the post of a managing director and was headed by a vice-chairman and president _ A C Muthiah _ who had functional heads reporting to him.

 

But, with the creation of the post of a managing director _ a position held by P R Sundaravadivelu since inception _ a new reporting hierarchy came into vogue where the functional directors reported to the managing director, who in turn took up matters with the vice chairman and president.

The board also finalised Spic's third-quarter results. For the three months ended December 31, 1999, the company reported a 50.63 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 5.21 crore from Rs 10.29 crore achieved in the corresponding period of the previous year.

M G Thirunavukkarasu, finance director of the company, attributed the decline in net profit to a substantial increase in interest costs from Rs 34.73 crore to Rs 47.96 crore during the period. This, he said, was on account of the loans taken by the company to complete modernisation work at the Tuticorin fertiliser plant and at the heavy chemicals plant at Manali, near here. "Further, delay in getting the amount due from the Government of India also resulted in the additional interest burden,'' Thirunavukkarasu said.

Sales in the period increased to Rs 862.25 crore (Rs 773.94 crore). Gross profit was at Rs 67.20 crore (Rs 57.19 crore).

For the nine months to December 31, 1999, net profit amounted to Rs 28.54 crore as against Rs 33.30 crore achieved in the corresponding period last year. Sales during the first three quarters stood at Rs 2,040.86 crore (Rs 1,992.59 crore).