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5) Profit before tax at Rs 80 crores was higher by
Rs 34 crores
6) Profit after tax at Rs 53 crores was higher by Rs 17 crores
7) Net Cash-flow from operating activities was Rs 106 crores
8) Borrowing came down from Rs 368 crores to
Rs 295 crores
The
profit
saw a significant improvement over the previous
year mainly because of the substantially lower impact on
account of adverse foreign exchange and lower interest cost.
Our Company has the distinction of never skipping the
dividend
since it began its operations in 1952 except in
1999-2000. On behalf of the Board, I had in the Annual
General Meeting held on August 18, 2000 indicated to
the shareholders that the skipped dividend will be made
good, and I am happy to state that the Directors have
recommended a higher dividend of 40% in step with the
verbal declaration.
We brought down our
capital expenditure
during the year
and instead undertook relatively smaller, but several projects
of improvements; as against an outflow of Rs 72 crores in the
previous year, our Company spent only Rs 21 crores during
the year. These projects will further strengthen our long-term
competitiveness and improve sales and profit.
The
potential of our Company
is much in excess of what
we have been able to deliver, and my colleagues and I are
fully seized of this reality. Coupled with this, we are also clear
that even in the depth of crisis, there are silver linings in the
form of opportunities for internal improvement and growth,
and we are working to realise them.
During
2010-11
, we will continue with our long-term
agenda and undertake several initiatives under 6 broad
areas: i) improving efficiencies and productivity, ii) expanding
existing products and introducing new value added products,
iii) bringing down gaseous, liquid and solid pollutants, iv)
making businesses more systems-driven, v) serving the society
and vi) enhancing people competencies. We are certain these
initiatives will significantly enhance our performance and help
us in accessing different opportunities for rapid growth in the
years ahead. In essence, we are working to further leverage
the internal possibilities for generating surplus cash-flows.
Our Company at present has four
overseas subsidiary
companies
, one each in the USA, the UK, Germany and
China. Since my last communication to you, we have taken
effective steps in
Malaysia
and
Brazil
which may ultimately
lead to the formation of two more overseas subsidiary
companies. Asia and South America are growing rapidly, and
we will participate more than ever before in these areas.
In order to pursue opportunities in healthcare space in a
focused way, our Company has established an associate
company,
Atul Bioscience Ltd
. It owns the manufacturing
facilities at Valsad site which earlier belonged to a multi-
national pharmaceutical company. Atul Bioscience is
investing Rs 15 crores to resurrect these facilities, which are
expected to be commissioned before the end of 2010-11.
Atul Rajasthan Date Palms Ltd
, a subsidiary joint venture
company with 74% shareholding by our Company and 26%
by the Government of Rajasthan, will commission the largest
facility in India to produce tissue cultured date palms. This is
a pioneering initiative taken up to help transform the ecology
and the economy of the arid regions.
Our Company was founded by
Mr Kasturbhai Lalbhai
,
one of the foremost Indians of his times and whose life
epitomized exemplary leadership with a strong social
purpose. He established Atul on September 15, 1947 with
the ultimate objective of fulfilling the then priorities of
making India self-reliant, generating large scale employment
and creating wealth in rural areas. Since inception, our
Company has pursued business with a larger purpose, and I
am happy to inform you that in order to keep a track of the
social work initiatives more formally, we have commenced
reviewing them every month as though it was one of our
businesses.
We are working to make Atul more customer focused,
efficient, growth seeking, knowledge intensive, people
oriented and community sensitive and thus reinforce its
foundation for the future. In this pursuit, we will change and
also make change happen. What will remain constant are our
Values
, which will bind us together and bring unity
in diversity.
With best wishes,
Sincerely,
Sunil S Lalbhai
Chairman and Managing Director