The Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) has approved a Rs. 990-crore revival package for Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT).
The BRPSE recommendation will now come up before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for its approval.
Sources said that the amount being recommended for FACT’s financial rejuvenation includes Rs. 441 crore in writing off the loans and interest thereof and Rs. 550 crore towards the company’s working capital.
Meanwhile, the financially beleaguered FACT looks to cash in on the new batch of 37 management, accounting and engineering trainees, who joined the company last week.
“The company management has high expectations of the new batch of managers and engineers, who must define the future of the company,” FACT sources said, pointing out that the average age of the company’s current employees, numbering more than 3,000, ranged between 50 and 52 years.
This is the second year in a row the public sector fertilizer company is inducting substantial numbers of trainee engineers and managers with a view to providing a new direction to the company that has drawn up ambitious plans for the future. Last year the company had inducted about 25 new trainees.
The number of employees at FACT has come down from roughly 10,000 about a decade ago to the current level.
Those newly inducted into the company include management trainees, assistant finance managers, a law officer and engineers in streams like chemical, electrical, mechanical, civil, instrumentation and computer. “Recently, FACT had gone for a nation-wide hunt for infusing young blood into its technical as well as administrative cadres”, said a statement issued by the company here.
With FACT bracing up for expansion and diversification, the company management expects it to achieve a new edge with the induction of the new hands. Various projects for the future are at various stages of approval by the Union government, said the press release.
FACT has recorded a loss of Rs. 83 crore for the three months ending September 2013, according to unaudited financial results.
The situation is slightly better for the quarter ending September compared to the previous three months when the company made losses of nearly Rs. 100 crore.
