The Company has received several queries related to change in rights ratio from 1 (one) for every 300 (three hundred) to 1 (one) for every 450 (four hundred fifty) shares. IN this connection we wish to clarify that the Board of Directors of Gujarat NRE Coke Limited had on 17th September, 2008 proposed to issue rights shares with differential voting rights (DVR) to the existing shareholders of the company in the ratio of 1 DVR share for 450 existing equity shares at a price of Rs.1000/- per DVR share. The rights entitlement of 1: 450 was fixed by the Board after considering the impact of the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 2:5 approved in the AGM of the company on 17th September 2008. Earlier the company had announced the ratio at 1: 300 without considering the bonus issue, which would lead to increase in paid up capital. As such the ratio of rights issue has been modified to maintain the quantum of rights issue at the same level as proposed. The voting rights attached to such DVR shares would be decided after obtaining requisite approvals from the shareholders.
Gujarat NRE Coke, the country’s largest independent coke producer is currently riding the crest of a global price upsurge, which is being consistently reflected in its performance over the last few quarters. Coke prices, which were hovering at around Rs.6000 – Rs.8000 in December 200, has since gone up to a historic high of Rs.30, 000 to Rs.35, 000 in the current quarter. Moreover, China, which dominates the global market in the commodity and benchmarks its price around the world, is steadily moving towards a regime of curtailed, tax controlled regime and has raised the export duty from 25% to 40% in August this year, which has led to a further supply crunch and consequent price rise. The company has also declared plans to set up a Greenfield 1 million ton coke plant in the Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh. The Company’s present coke production capacity of 1.006 million tonne is being expanded in a phased manner to 1.254 million tonne by 31st March 2009 and 2.254 million tonne by 31st December 2010.
The company is the only company owning and operating coking coalmines in Australia and both mines are now in production. During the current fiscal the ROM coking coal production from its two mines is expected to be in excess of 1 million tonne and brown field developments are underway to ramp up the production to beyond 7 million tons by 2012/13. Hard coking coal prices are also rising very rapidly as is evident in annual contract prices rising from USD 96 MT in 2007 to USD 300 per MT in 2008, and as against annual contracted rate of USD 300 per MT, the current spot rates range between USD 380 – 400 per MT; and even at this price the availability is scarce.
