CALCUTTA, July 7: IFB Industries Ltd has decided to extend its accounting year by six months to an 18-month period ending December 31 instead of the usual June 30.

The decision has been taken as consultants Price Waterhouse & Co is in the process of working out a restructuring plan for the company's various operations ranging from fine blanks, automotive parts, white goods and trading.

Sources said it would be a prudent decision to project a correct picture of the company only after Price Waterhouse completes its detailed study.

The company has been faced with a severe financial crisis and is working out a restructuring of the group. The idea is to focus on core competencies and go in for merger of certain associate companies, sources said.

The company has also entrusted Ernst & Young, another major consultancy, the job of doing a business analysis and brand valuation exercise for its home appliances division. Ernst & Young has completed the valuation exercise, and the report is likely to be submitted shortly.

IFB is currently scouting about for a joint-venture partner for its home appliances division, which makes washing machines.

The company had a licensing agreement with Bosch of Germany, under which IFB marketed its IFB-Bosch washing machines. With the termination of the contract, IFB is now interested in hiving off the division into a separate joint venture company. Company officials were, however, tightlipped on the details of the restructuring. The much-speculated merger of IFB Agro with the parent company was too premature to comment upon, said company officials.The Rs 400-crore IFB Group of Bijon Nag, of which IFB Industries is the flagship, has interests in agro products, finance and venture capital.

Strapped for funds, IFB Industries' borrowings have gone up 72 per cent in the last one year. The company has been concentrating on its automotive parts division, which grossed a turnover of Rs 31.8 crore in 1995-96 and has launched several new products including safety belts, window lifter systems, door locks, hand brakes, gear shifting systems at its Calcutta and Bangalore factories.It has also signed up agreements with Excel Industries of the United States for development and manufacture of seat slides and recliners and with Bentler AG and Kuster & Co Gmbh of Germany for other automotive components. To focus on core competence and synergistic advantages, IFB Industries had acquired all shares of of RHW India Ltd, its joint venture company. Now known as IFB Automotive Seating Systems Ltd, it would be considered as a wholly-owned subsidiary.IFB Industries is in the process of amalgamating the subsidiary with itself to enable the proper use of resources and technology.Although the company's debt-equity ratio is still respectable at 0.44:1, profits have been stagnating. Industry watchers say that a cash infusion is absolutely necessary without which its entire range of diversified operations may face problems.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.