Indal board reconstituted

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CALCUTTA

The Aditya Birla Group, India's second largest business house, has acquired 74.6 per cent equity in Hindalco, its flagship company. This includes the 54.6 per cent holding divested by Alcan to the group and an additional 20 per cent through the open offer, for a total consideration of Rs 1,008 crore.

Consequently, the board of Indal has been reconstituted. Kumar Mangalam Birla, is the new chairman. Askaran Agarwala, president and whole-time director of Hindalco, has been named the vice-chairman.

Almost half of Indal's earlier board has been retained. The reason, Kumar Mangalam Birla stated was, "To maintain the directional thrust that has taken Indal successfully forward, Jhaveri, Choksey, Mudaliar and NK Choudhary, who have been on the board of Indal, continue as directors." SC.Jain, the FI nominee, will also be on the Board.

From the Aditya Birla Group, three directors have been nominated. They are: S.K.Tamotia, who takes over as the new CEO of Indal, B.L.Shah, who is Indian Rayon's director and has been associated with the Group for several decades, and Santrupt Misra, president of the Aditya Birla Group's Corporate Human Resources Division.

"Collectively, the board represents the wealth of experience and expertise necessary to steer Indal further on the growth trajectory and take the Group's aluminium business to a new high," avers Birla.

He also stated that "Aluminium is a business to which we attach great importance, given its enormous growth potential. The acquisition of Indal will help us fuel the growth of our aluminium business and to strongly position Hindalco in a rapidly consolidating global market. It creates enormous value for both Indal and Hindalco's shareholders."

Elucidating his vision, Birla commented, that "Going forward, with the combined strength of Hindalco and Indal, our aim is to catapult our aluminium business on top of the league, first in South-East Asia and a few years down the line, join the ranks of the global best ten players.

Today collectively, this combine commands the highest metal capacity in the entire South-East Asian belt".

Commenting on the potential to realise significant value generation through synergies, Askaran Agarwala, Indal's new vice-chairman, said that, "Indal and Hindalco complement each other in a marvellous manner. Indal is a leading player in alumina and downstream aluminium products while Hindalco is unmatchable in metal and enjoys a strong position in alumina and in downstream facilities. We aim to leverage the collective competitive strength of both Hindalco and Indal that stems from such a convergence."

Indal's new CEO, Tamotia added, "These are achievable through co-ordinating various functions and tasks, homogenising systems and procedures, integrating logistics, cost optimisation, product rationalisation and marketing and manufacturing strategies".

As this is a priority area, various task forces are to be constituted to ensure quick integration of processes and systems. A steering committee headed by Birla himself has already been put in place, informs Tamotia.

For the year ending 1999-2000, Hindalco's sales turnover stood at Rs 2,031 crore, its operating profit at Rs 940 crore and the net profit at Rs 612 crore. Indal recorded a sales turnover of Rs 1,141 crore, an operating profit of Rs 109 crore and a net profit of Rs 84 crore.

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