The Ruia Group has hived off all but one of its businesses in Europe.
These include Schlegel Automotive Europe in the U.K., Draftex Automotive, Gumasol and Ruia Global Fasters (erstwhile Accument GmbH), and a clutch of other companies in Europe which it had acquired between 2009 and 2011.
“All these companies, barring Gumasol, are no longer with the Group” Mr Ruia said, adding that the company had recovered some of its investments in these companies. “ Barring Gumasol, all overseas companies have been hived off in 2012 when we entered into a period of consolidation and concentrated on the domestic scene where the action is,” he said.
“We realised over the last two years that it was becoming difficult to earn money in these operations.. it was not commensurate with the money and the efforts that the Group was putting in these companies, ” he said.
The emphasis was now on consolidation of the domestic operations where the group is engaged in tyre and infrastructure.
On the domestic front, the group has 12 companies including three listed entities – Falcon, Dunlop and Jessop. Turnover was about Rs. 2500 crore with net profit of around Rs 150 crore. “We are planning to ramp up operations at Falcon and Jessop, which will now concentrate on turnkey projects. We have plans for Falcon which we will share later.”
On the winding order given by the Calcutta High Court on Dunlop, Mr Ruia said that the management argument was that the total liability would be only around Rs 15 crore.
