ISMT eyes Rs 1000 cr turnover in FY06

ISMT Ltd, the merged entity of the Pune-based Indian Seamless Metal Tubes and Indian Seamless Steels & Alloys, is likely to be a Rs 1,000 crore entity in 2005-06.

Managing director O P Kakkar said the turnover of the merged entity would be about Rs 1,200 crore and if all goes well in the second half, net profit would be over Rs 100 crore in 2005-06.

In the first half of the current fiscal, the two companies aggregated net sales of Rs 747.84 crore, with Indian Seamless Metal Tubes having contributed Rs 346.38 crore and Indian Seamless Steels & Alloys Rs 401.46 crore. The half-yearly net profit of the combined entity stood at Rs 61.03 crore, with the former having contributed Rs 8.01 crore and the latter Rs 53.02 crore.

Kakkar said the new entity is poised for interesting times. "The merger consolidates our engineering knowledge and skills, and tightens supply chain so that we can service our customers better," he said.

The company management seems upbeat about the performance of the merged entity. The company already has in place an established and growing customer base having some of the best known names in the automobile, general engineering, bearing, energy, mining and oil sectors, both in India and globally.

B R Taneja, chairman, ISMT, said, "The enormously positive response to our products in the global markets will keep ISMT firmly on the growth path in the coming years."

The merged entity is using the de-bottlenecking and technology-upgrade approach to enhance capacity in the immediate future. While the 1,55,000-tonne per annum (tpa) tube capacity of the company will be increased to 2,00,000 tpa, its steel capacity of 1,90,000 tpa, already manufacturing 2,40,000 tpa, will be enhanced to 3,50,000 tpa.

The merged entity will offer a range of precision seamless tubes to tier-I suppliers of auto, bearing and other engineering original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Equipped with an in-house raw material source, the company will be able to achieve higher stability in cost and profitability and will, therefore, position itself better with the international OEMs.

The group company Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Ltd is the first and only private sector aircraft manufacturing company in the country.

Besides manufacturing a six-seat turboprop plane, it also manufactures advanced aero structures and parts for the Indian and international aircraft and aerospace industry.