Great Eastern Shipping Company (GE Shipping), the largest private sector shipping company in the country, plans to enter into a joint venture to offer air logistics services.
"The company is seeking an ally to form a joint venture firm for the air logistics business. The present air logistic operations will be offered through the new venture," a company spokesman said. He declined to give any further details.
The company's board has already approved the formation of the joint venture for the business.
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The air logistics division of GE Shipping consists of helicopters, which it has leased from various parties. The Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and energy companies Enron, Hardy and Cairn chartered the helicopters from GE Shipping last year for their offshore logistics purposes. The annual utilisation ratio for the fleet of helicopters was 70 per cent.
This is the second time in recent years when the company could hive off an operating division. Earlier, the realty division was spun off into a separate company, Gesco Corporation.
Buoyed by the upswing in the shipping industry's fortunes last year, GE Shipping posted a record net profit of Rs 177.39 crore in 2000-01. The public sector Shipping Corporation of India too posted a record profit of over Rs 400 crore last year.
GE Shipping has embarked on a buyback last year for which it earmarked Rs 150 crore and capped the maximum buyback price at Rs 42 per share. Consequently, the company's share capital stood reduced to Rs 215.9 crore in 2000-01, from Rs 258.8 crore in 1999-2000.
The company is seeking shareholders' nod for a second round of buyback at its forthcoming annual general meeting on July 26. Last fiscal, the company also placed privately Rs 95 crore of preference shares. The shares carry a dividend of 8.5 per cent and are redeemable after 36 months with a put and call option after 18 months.