The fixed assets of Bata India Ltd has gone up by a whopping Rs 158.8 crore between 1996 and 1997 following re-evaluation of assets.
The fixed assets of the company stood at Rs 215.38 crore as on December 31, 1997 against Rs 52.35 crore in the previous year. The company had undertaken a re-evaluation of assets at December 31, 1997 whereby the value of the assets were enhanced by Rs 158.8 crore with the release of the second charge on fixed assets by State Bank of India during the year.
During the year, the shoe major acquired 100 per cent equity shares in Coastal Commercial & Exim Private Ltd through its subsidiary Bata Properties Ltd.
A decision to this effect was taken by the board of directors at a meeting held in December 22, 1997, where the entire holdings of the existing shareholders of Coastal Commercial were transferred to Bata Properties Ltd for cash at par.
As a result of this acquisition, Bata Properties has become a deemed public limited company with effect from September 30, 1997.
The company was in a position to repay working capital demand loans of Rs 39.38 crore to SBI and the State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur and Euroloan of US $ 5 million (Rs 18.63 crore)to Citibank and also redeemed debentures of Rs 3.5 crore to SBI Mutual Fund thereby reducing borrowings substantially to Rs 42.82 crore against Rs 118.2 crore the previous year along with trade creditors having reduced to Rs 45.4 crore against Rs 72.4 crore in 1996.
Due to reduced level of borrowings and decline in the cost of funds in the wake of reduction of prime lending rates by the commercial banks, the interest charges went down to Rs 14.4 crore, a substantial climbdown from Rs 19.3 crore the previous year.
This financial upswing has mainly been triggered off by a successful rights issue in early 1997 and the total cash generated from the business of Rs 27 crore.
The company's debt-equity ratio has improved to 0.14:1 against 1.89:1 the previous year.
During the year, the company availed of FCNR(B)loans to the extent of an estimated Rs 10.74 crore. The company also floated commercial paper totalling Rs 10 crore.
Export sales amounted to Rs 27.15 crore against Rs 23.65 crore in 1996.
The net foreign exchange inflow was Rs 18.57 crore in 1997 against Rs 13.96 crore in 1996.
The company, in adherence to the norms laid down by the Securities & Exchange Board of India, has appointed a share transfer agent. The company and the agents have already signed an agreement with the National Securities Depository Ltd to implement the new system for electronically transferring its shares through the depository services provided by NSDL.
