BK Birla keen to retire from Century Enka

Basant Kumar Birla (B K Birla), the second oldest member of Birla empire, is keen to hand over the reign of group chemical outfit Century Enka Ltd (CEL) to his grandson Kumar Mangalam Birla.

However, his grandson does not seem to be ready to assume the mantle from his grandfather immediately, the 84-year-old B K Birla admitted here today.

He said he was eager to hand over Century Enka along with Century Textiles to Kumar Mangalam after the 39th annual general meeting (AGM) of CEL here today.

Referring to his age, Birla said he was too old to look after so many companies.

"I want to hand over Century Enka today itself to Kumar. I am telling this to my grandson for last couple of months. But he told me that I should continue as long as I can. Let me see how long I can continue," he said.

However, B K Birla admitted that Kumar Mangalam already had many big companies to manage and so assuming charge of Century Enka and Century Textiles just now was difficult.

Commenting on the buy back of 30 per cent stake of Acordis Investment BV in CEL, Birla said the overseas partner had earlier tried to sell its holding in the market, but failed to get a reasonable price.

"They then offered the shares to us. I thought rather than buying it through our investment companies, we should go for buy back through the company so the book value as well as EPS increases," he added.

BK Birla made it clear that Century Enka would not buy back the remaining shares of Acordis. Incidentally, Acordis has around 38 per cent stake in the outfit. "They might sell it in the market as after the buy back its holding will fall to 8 per cent," said Birla.

Investment focus now on nylon

Century Enka Ltd is planning to invest heavily in its nylon business to reduce its dependence on polyester.

The chairman of Century Enka, B K Birla, said todat that it would invest around Rs 160 crore for setting up a nylon tyre cord fabric plant at Mahad in Maharashtra.

"The project will be completed by September 2006," he said.

Explaining the gradual shift in product line, the senior president of Century Enka, G M Singhvi, said that better realisation in nylon had prompted the company to increase nylon capacity.

The nylon polymerisation capacity of the outfit was raised by 1.46 lakh ton in April 2005.

"The shift to nylon has already paid off," he added.

Century Enka posted a turnover of Rs 1123.52 crore in 2004-05 from Rs 980 crore in 2003-04.