SAIL to pay dividend after 7 years

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) today announced a 15% interim dividend, the first time after 1997-98, after reporting a 105% jump in net profit at Rs 1,514 crore in the third quarter ended December 2004 as against Rs 738 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

"There is no pressure from the government to declare dividend. When the company is performing well, every stakeholder has a desire for returns," SAIL chairman V S Jain said after the board meeting today.

The government would get Rs 531.7 crore of the total dividend outgo of Rs 619.56 crore.

Jain also announced massive investment plans of Rs 25,000 crore till 2011-12 to up hot metal capacity to 20 million tonne from the current 12.5 million tonne. The plans were approved by the board at its meeting
today, he added.

"Finance is not a problem. We have decided to maintain debt-equity ratio of 1:1. Going by this, we may not need market borrowing in the near future. We should be generating internal accruals of about Rs 2,000-2,500 crore annually. At this rate,  we may not require market borrowing at all," Jain said.

SAIL's net profit in the first nine months moved up 176% to Rs 4,149 crore from Rs 1,498 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.