New proposal for Alind's revival

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPT. 21. A recent meeting of the management of Aluminium Industries Ltd. (Alind) and the financial institutions which have stakes in the well-being of the company is understood to have favoured the idea of selling off the individual units of the company through competitive bidding.

The meeting was convened by the Industrial Investment Bank of India (IIBI), the operating agency, to consider how to retrieve the ailing company. Alind has eight divisions located in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. The efforts so far have failed to come up with a viable proposal for the rehabilitation of the company as a whole, forcing the interested parties to think in terms of breaking it up into independent units to attract bidders.

There had been enquiries for the takeover of Alind's switchgear division at Mannar in Kerala and machinery division in Hyderabad. However, nothing transpired from the overtures since the prices offered were far below the value of the assets of the units.

Some two years ago there was even a proposal from a Hyderabad- based firm to take over all eight divisions of Alind. After this offer had fizzled out, the company's management, towards the end of 1999, submitted a suggestion to the Board for Industrial Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) that the various units of the company could be put up for sale as independent entities.

The proposal was that the relays division in Thiruvananthapuram and the switchgear division at Mannar, both of which are keeping their heads just above the surface, could be clubbed together to form a new subsidiary unit. The other six units were to be sold off separately.

However, this proposal did not sprout wings. In the meantime, the cooperative society floated by the workers of Alind's two divisions at Kundara approached the BIFR with an appeal to entrust the management of the divisions to them. They pleaded that the divisions could be turned profitable with the financial support of cooperative banks in the State. The society had the full support of the previous Government of the LDF.

The offer of the society was examined for its viability at the last IIBI meeting and rejected.

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Section  : Southern States
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