Talking to reporters after the company's annual general meeting here on Thursday, chairman and managing director SB Ganguly said, ``Our automotive battery segment has grown by 41 per cent and the industrial battery segment has grown by 113 per cent in the last five months. We have also supplied our first batteries to Mitsubishi's Lancer project and Hyundai's Santro. Exide will also power Telco's Mint shortly."

The company is aiming to pay Rs 48 crore in interests and Rs 59 crore of its debts in the current year. The continuing expansion and modernisation of the existing factories and the establishment of the Hosur factory involved substantial investments, Ganguly said. Moreover, the debt burden had also risen on account of the acquisition of Standard Batteries in the last fiscal, he added.

The Rahen Raheja-controlledExide Industries had acquired the factories of Standard Batteries at Taloja, Kanjur Marg, Ahmednagar and Guindy from the BM Khaitan group in November last year. The takeover was based on the acquisition of all fixed assets and brands, raw materials and work in progress and with the transfer of the services of all its categories of employees from the Williamson Magor fold.

Exide had to cope with the glut in the automotive segment over the last one year. One of its largest customers, Telco, saw a sales drop of over 40 per cent. Sales of Ashok Leyland, was down 30 per cent. The growth in heavy commercial vehicles and tractors was a modest one, Ganguly said.

According to him, the growth of the two-wheeler segment in the auto sector has been a redeeming feature. The company's sales to this category recorded a 28 per cent increase against the industry average of 20 per cent.

The two-wheeler batteries have sustained the company's export performance in the new markets in countries as diverse as Rwanda,Zimbabwe, Columbia, Argentina and Greece.

Exide has plans to install a line for motorcycle batteries at the Ahmednagar factory this year, apart from the recent installation of a line at its Hosur plant.

Acccording to Ganguly, its industrial battery segment is operating in a big way. To this end the company has set up a modern plant for the manufacture of valve-regulated lead acid batteries (VRLA) at Hosur. "We despatch batteries worth Rs 110 crore from this unit alone, and we plan to double the capacity this year," he said.

The company has introduced a new battery, named Invaking, for inverters and `TV Queen' for television viewing. The company is in the process of signing a fresh agreement for technical assitance with Shin Kobe of Japan for auto batteries in the current year. Shin Kobe is Hitachi's manufacturing arm for VRLA batteries.

The battery major has gained distinctly from the takeover of the submarine battery plant of Standard Batteries at Kanjur Marg in Mumbai. Besides being in a position tomanufacture batteries for both Russian and German submarines, the company is in the process of executing an order from Algeria. This would help in bettering the export turnover of the company, said Ganguly.

Exide has a market share of 30 per cent in the replacement market, whereas it commands a market share of nearly 90 per cent in the original equipment (OE) category.

Although the operating profit of the company grew by 12 per cent to Rs 79.91 crore in 1997-98, the battery major reported a 24.66 per cent decline in its net profit at Rs 23.30 crore during the same period on account of a higher interest outgo and depreciation.

The shareholders ratified a resolution for increasing or decreasing its authorised capital, which is currently at Rs 75 crore. The company plans to divide this authorised capital into equity shares of Rs 50 crore and preference shares of Rs 25 crore.