Can’t comment if Ultratech Cement will merge India Cements into itself: Rupa Gurunath

CHENNAI: Rupa Gurunath, whole time director, India Cements, on Monday, remained non-committal on the probability of the company merging with Ultratech Cement but gave reassurance about the employees’ future. Number of total number of employees in the company is 1,875. Chairing the 78th Annual General Meeting of India Cements (ICL), which was attended by VC-MD N Srinivasan, via video conference, Gurunath said, “We are not able to comment whether Ultratech will merge India Cements with Ultratech.The employees will be taken care of by Ultratech.

The future of the company is in the hands of Ultratech,” in response to queries from the shareholders. While the AGM went off smoothly with shareholders supporting all the resolutions, there were some concerns raised about future plans of the company and the fate of employees and shareholders and whether it will remain a separate entity merged with Ultratech. She also said “Ultratech is a successful cement producer and we are sure they will ensure the future of the company.

The shareholders value, we hope, will improve in the future.” Noting that there are plans to reduce the variable cost of the company, Gurunath said “we have already engaged consultants to suggest ways and means to achieve this. We have done part of it. It will continue. We feel that UltraTech will definitely take the initiatives forward.”

ICL has engaged the services of experts like Boston Consulting Group and a few others to suggest measures for improving the operating efficiency, she sought to point out. As per Gurunath, these efforts have provided some relief in the form of a reduction in the variable cost for some of its plants.

“The company has not delayed or defaulted on any of the scheduled loan repayments and has been able to manage the situation by recovering some of the advances as well as through sale of some of the non core assets.” At present, there is no prospect for export as the prices are not viable, she said, in response to another query.

Earlier, in her address, she said during the year under review, the overall sales volume was lower at 94.57 lakh tonnes compared to 98.93 lakh tonnes in 2022-23. Total revenue, including other income was Rs 4996.76 crore against Rs 5415.08 crore in the previous year. With improved operating performance, there was a turnaround with a positive EBIDTA of Rs 163 crore during the year compared to a negative EBIDTA of Rs 140 crore in the previous year.

The interest and other charges were Rs 240 crores (Rs 234 crore) while depreciation was Rs 220 crore (Rs 213 crore). There was an exceptional item representing profit on sale of land and ship (net) amounting to Rs 42 crore during the year and after reckoning the tax adjustments and other comprehensive items, the comprehensive loss for the year was Rs 202 crore as compared to a loss of Rs 188 crore in the previous year. ICL divested its grinding unit at Parli to UltraTech Cement for a total consideration of Rs 315 crore during the Q1 of the current financial year.