Seven years after being carved out of the crisis-ridden Kerala Hi-tech Industries Ltd. run by the State government, BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Ltd. (BATL) is on the sickbed again.
With its rapidly eroding net worth taking it to near bankruptcy, the company will be referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) with a revival plan within 60 days.
On Thursday, the company’s general body endorsed the audited accounts for the financial ending March 2014 showing a net loss of Rs. 4.11 crore despite increasing its sales turnover to Rs. 33.53 crore from the Rs. 28.59 crore during 2012-13.
“The accumulated loss of the company over the years stands at Rs.24.2 crore as against its share capital of Rs.20.56 crore. As there is an erosion of net worth, the procedure is to refer it to the BIFR under the Union Finance Ministry within 60 days with a detailed revival plan,” its Managing Director, Vinod Shankar, told The Hindu .
Commander (Retd.) Shankar said the company had identified some nine high-value, high-volume products in the aerospace and defence sector for which production lines would be set up to save it from dire straits.
115 products“Right now, the company develops 115 products, a chunk of which are in small numbers. Which is why we have zeroed on a these high-volume products, especially from ISRO, the DRDO and our parent company, BrahMos Aerospace Private Ltd., with a view to jacking up the rate and speed of production,” he said.
Sudhir Kumar Misra, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, BrahMos, attributed the loss and the crisis to the “impractical, unrealistic and unsustainable” pay package implemented since January 2013. “It is a small company, equivalent to a ‘C’ category PSU [public sector undertaking], but the pay scales offered are that of PSUs in the A+ league,” he told The Hindu .
Low productivityMr. Misra contended that while the quality of work and skill-levels of the workforce were top-notch, the company’s productivity was low. “Despite the recession, they have orders worth Rs. 170 crore. However, they are just not executing them on time,” he said. He exuded optimism about the firm getting back on track in a few years with the missile integration complex going full-scale, rolling out the complete BrahMos missile in six months to a year’s time.
