Kennametal Widia India announces return to profitability
By Mumbai: | 30 Jul 2004
For the 12-month period under review, the company posted net sales of Rs2,249 million and profit before tax of Rs295 million compared to net sales of Rs2,759 million and pre-tax losses of Rs618 million for the 18-month period ended June 30, 2003. Sales from the divested mining and construction tools business are included in the company's 12-month sales performance only for the first eight months of the year, upto the time the business was sold.
Announcing the first complete year's results after the company's change in ownership, Kumar Kanetkar, managing director of Kennametal Widia India said, "We are happy to announce the excellent performance of the company for this first full year which is in line with our expectations. The company is now debt free, has achieved a significant reduction in its receivables and is well poised to register significant growth in the coming years."
He also went on to add, "In the coming months of the current financial year, we will invest close to Rs40 crore in our operations in Bangalore and in our offices across India to strengthen and expand our capabilities and capacities to grow by better serving our customers."
The company's mining and construction tools business was divested effective March 1, 2004. However, the remaining three businesses of the company, viz. metalworking, metal forming (now the engineering products group) and machine tools, have registered strong growth during the year.
The declared results show a successful turn-around by the company in terms of sales and operating profits.
The company launched Kennametal University and also upgraded its facilities and infrastructure in Bangalore. Its machine tools business won its largest single order worth Rs180 million in the period under review, and moved up by 50 places to 245th position in the list of 500 largest companies in India by market capitalisation.
Due to a change in the financial year, the previous fiscal year of the company was extended to 18 months covering a period from January 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003.
