CompanyWatch:INDIAN Oil,sales up 17% to 69,430 cr ($15.5 bil),prepares for disinvestment.
Company Homepage:
indianoilcorp.com
Stock Price as of 9/06/99
NSE=Rs 440.25
BSE-Rs 441.00
P/E=12.72
Book Value=Rs 272.66
Turnover up 17 pc -- To pay 130 pc, 1:1 bonus
Our Bureau
NEW DELHI, Sept. 6
INDIAN Oil Corporation (IOC) has registered a turnover of Rs. 69,430 crores in 1998-99, an increase of over 17 per cent over the previous year, and is preparing for disinvestment of shares in the last quarter of the present fiscal.
Disclosing this at a press conference, Mr. M.A. Pathan, Chairman, IOC, said that for the year ending 1999-2000, under the current scenario, the corporation should achieve a turnover of Rs. 77,000 crores (US$17.11 billion) and a profit of Rs. 2,500 crores (US$555.5 million). For 1998-99, IOC registered a net profit of Rs. 2,214 crores.
Given the profit recorded in 1998-99, the IOC board has recommended the highest-ever dividend at 130 per cent, as compared to 50 per cent in the previous year and a bonus share in the ratio of 1:1 by capitalisation of a sum of Rs. 389.34 crores from the general reserves.
IOC has chalked out investment plans worth Rs. 10,000 crores for the present fiscal. Of this, in keeping with its usual trend, 85 per cent of the funds would be met through internal accruals. Its liquidity position improved during the last fiscal with the redemption of Rs. 5,047-crores bond issued by the Government. For the Ninth and the Tenth Plan periods, a total investment of over Rs. 60,000 crores has been planned, of which projects worth around Rs. 13,000 crores are under implementation.
The year 1998-99 was significant for the country's oil sector with the initiation of the process of dismantling the administered pricing mechanism (APM). During the year, the APM was withdrawn from the refining sector from April 1, 1998, licensing of refining capacities was withdrawn and petroleum exports were decanalised, except for crude oil, for public sector refineries, motor spirit, aviation turbine fuel, and high-speed diesel.
Mr. Pathan said that world-over, refinery margins are being squeezed owing to over-capacity and slump in demand. For the refineries in the country, the Government would be providing tariff protection which would help in maintaining the margins. He also said that concerted efforts would be made to improve upon the refinery margins.
The major achievements of the company for 1998-99 include the signing of marketing agreements with Reliance Petroleum Ltd, Cochin Refineries Ltd (CRL), Bongaigaon Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd (BRPL). The corporation has decided to go ahead with its proposed East India refinery on its own, following considerable delay in Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) _ the proposed joint venture partner _ taking a decision on participating in the project.
It also arrived at a strategic alliance with the domestic upstream giant, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), for a vertical integration and the formation of a national oil entity. Both partners propose to form joint ventures by pooling their resources to exploit opportunities in the hydrocarbon value chain.
IOC attained a crude oil throughput of 30.36 million tonnes, surpassing the earlier achievement of 27.5 million tonnes in 1997-98. Its network of crude oil and product pipelines was expanded from 5,762 km to 6,268 km with the commissioning of the Haldia-Barauni pipeline in February 1999.
Product sales reached 46.05 million tonnes during 1998-99 as compared to 43.41 million tonnes in the previous year. During the year, IOC arranged import of 39.8 million tonnes of crude oil and 18.87 million tonnes of fuel products.
(BusinessLine) |
