The 22nd annual general body meeting of the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), being held here on Tuesday, is expected to approve, among other things, the induction of new members of the Board of Directors as well as the proposal to pay 25 per cent dividend for the last financial year.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is the chairman of CIAL, will preside at the meeting scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at the Fine Arts Society Hall.
There are 18,200 shareholders in CIAL in 36 countries. It is the first airport in the country to come up in the private-public partnership mode. The company achieved a profit of Rs.175 crore during the last financial year and the proposal is for dividend payment of 25 per cent. The company had a total turnover of Rs.524 crore during the last financial year. With the dividend of 25 per cent for the last fiscal, the total dividend payment from CIAL will stand at 153 per cent from 2003-04.
New members
The new members of the Board, Ministers T.M. Thomas Isaac, Mathew T. Thomas and V.S. Sunil Kumar and Chief Secretary S.M. Vijayanand will be inducted in place of former ministers K.M. Mani, P.K. Kunhalikutty and K. Babu as well as former Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson. The Board will also approve the extension of the services of Managing Director V.J. Kurien for a period of five years from June this year.
The new members of the Board had met in Thiruvanthapuram on June 23 to consider the results of the company for the last financial year during which the business grew by nearly 27 per cent and profit by 21 per cent.
Passenger traffic through the airport went past the 77-lakh mark during the last financial year and the number of aircraft handled went up to 57,762 during the year. Cargo movement through the airport too has increased considerably to stand at over 79,000 tonnes.
The airport has also emerged as the seventh largest in India in terms of total passenger traffic. It expects its total turnover to go up to around Rs.3,000 crore by 2023.
Company achieved profit of Rs.175 crore during last financial year; total turnover was Rs.524 crore
