Decades after making its first investment in this region, the B.K.Birla Group seems to be keen on infusing some fresh capital in West Bengal where it had sown the seeds of its industrial empire.
Group company Kesoram Industries Ltd. (KIL) is currently exploring its options in this regard, it is learnt. “We are not in a position to give any details at this juncture”, whole-time director and chief financial officer Tridib Kumar Das said, addressing the press after the company’s 98th AGM.
Indications were the investments would be made in KIL’s present lines of business — cement, tyres and rayon. Rayon was hived off to a subsidiary.
KIL had recently bought back a spun pipe manufacturing unit and a heavy chemicals unit, which it had sold to Camden Industries some time back.
Along with its sale of a tyre unit in Laskar, Uttarakhand, the sale of these two closed units, was part of a restructuring plan.
“The two companies were sold and bought back for ₹400 crore, ” Mr. Das said.
Finance costs
The company reduced its finance costs to ₹268.9 crore in 2016-17, from ₹677.5 crore in 2015-16, Mr. Das informed the shareholders on Thursday.
The reduced interest burden along with cost savings in materials helped KIL improve its margins in 2016-17.
