Public sector firm Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) today paid a dividend of Rs 16.99 crore to the Centre.
The PSU is paying dividend for the sixth consecutive year. The dividend cheque was handed over to Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari by Chairman and Managing Director K Subramaniam at New Delhi, a CSL press release said here.
The dividend is of Rs 1.5 per equity share on the 11,32,80,000 fully paid equity shares of Rs 10 each. In addition, the yard has also contributed Rs 162.10 crore to the exchequer by way of Value Added Tax, Income Tax, Fringe Benefit Tax, Excise Duty, Customs Duty and Service Tax during the year 2013-14.
The performance of Cochin Shipyard had been consistently impressive in the last several years despite a very challenging business environment in the Shipbuilding/Ship repair and Shipping scenario. Cochin Shipyard's turnover has increased five fold from Rs 373 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 1637 crore in 2013-14. Likewise the net profits have more than doubled during the period from Rs 94 crore to Rs 194 crore.
Considering the sluggish market, CSL performed creditably by posting an increase of 5 per cent, both in turnover which increased from Rs 1554 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 1637 crore this year and in net profit which was up from Rs 185 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 194 crore this year.
The highlight of this year's performance was the launching of the first indigenously built Aircraft Carrier "Vikrant" on Aug 12 last year. The yard also exported 2 High end Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs) , besides delivering 5 Fast Patrol Vessels (FPVs) to the Indian Coast Guard.
With a net worth of Rs 1352 crore, the present book value of the company's shares of face value of Rs 10 is Rs 121. The company is looking at enlarging its product range and is actively pursuing the construction of dredgers and LNG vessels.
