SKS to invest Rs 200 cr for fleet expanssion

SKS (Ship), a big player in coastal shipping segment, is on a major expansion drive having earmarked Rs 200 crore investment for adding four new multi-purpose barges to its fleet.

While the first of the four ships will be launched this month, the fleet expansion will be completed by August 2005.

SKS has already got the nod from its bankers to raise upto Rs 150 crore for this expansion.

The four multi-purpose vessels will have a capacity of around 3,500 dead weight tonnage (DWT) each with two cranes of 50 tonne mounted on each vessel. With the addition of these four ships, SKS's fleet strength will go upto 36 ships in 2005.

Besides this, SKS is actively scouting around for an international partner with which it can float a separate joint venture shipping company, "We are still in the initial stages of discussion with a number of foreign companies but they have many reservations about our legal system and, in case of any dispute, want the arbitration to be done in London," said SK Shahi, chairman of SKS.

Riding high on the benefits of newly introduced tonnage tax and a overall boom in international shipping, mid-sized companies such as SKS, Mercator Lines and Shreyas Shipping have embarked on big expansion drive. Shreyas Shipping has got the approval from its shareholders to raise $100 million.

SKS Ship reported a net profit of Rs 6.8 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal, against Rs 7.67 lakh in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal.

Net sales and income from operations stood at Rs 63 crore, an increase of 26 per cent compared with the income for the second quarter ended 2003-04.