Mangalam Cement to set up plant at Adityanagar in Rajasthan

KOLKATA: B K Birla group company Mangalam Cement on Thursday said it is setting up a 1.5 million tonne per annum cement manufacturing unit at Adityanagar in Rajasthan. The proposed Rs 750 crore venture also entails setting up of a captive 17.5 mw thermal power plant within the same premises.

The project, which will come up adjacent to the company's existing Rajasthan unit, will be financed by internal cash accruals of Rs 300 crore as well as by long term loan and debt instrument of approximately of Rs 450 crore. Completion of the proposed unit will enhance the company's cement manufacturing capacity to 3.5 million tonne per annum.

Company sources claim the board of directors, which met in Kolkata on Thursday, has given its in principle approval to the expansion plan. The board also approved induction of B K Birla's granddaughter Vidula Jalan and her husband, Anshuman Vikram Jalan as additional directors "in sync with group patriarch Basant Kumar Birla's decision to hand over the reins of Mangalam Cement and Mangalam Timber to his granddaughter and her husband," the source added.

The board also approved the company's unaudited financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2009. The company reported a 75.61 % rise in net profit at Rs 33.70 crore for the first-quarter (Q1) ended June 30, 2009, compared to a Rs 19.19 crore net in the earlier corresponding period. The higher Q1 profit follows a 24.51 % growth in Mangalam Cement's April-June quarter gross sales revenue at Rs 171.36 crore (Rs 137.62 crore).

While net sales for the quarter under review registered a near 32.04 % growth at Rs 154.91 crore, other operating income in the said quarter stood at Rs 16.94 lakh. Interest and financial charges during Q1 dipped to Rs 51.63 lakh (Rs 1.02 crore) while depreciation & amortisation cost was marginally higher at Rs 6.30 crore (Rs 5.45 crore).

A stretcher case under the provisions of SICA 1985, Mangalam Cement came out of the BIFR ambit sometime ago and has turned around reporting a profit from ordinary activities before tax of Rs 52.05 crore in the said quarter against Rs 26.81 crore in the corresponding previous quarter.