In another major management manouevre, Grasim Industries, under which all the cement businesses of the group have been consolidated, has set up a task force dedicated to creating a national brand, which may in time replace the seven regional brands that the company currently hawks across the country. With a capacity of 10.6 million tonnes per annum, Grasim is now the country's second-largest cement powerhouse, and a national brand evolved over three to five years is expected to bolster its lead position in this segment.

Asked whether Grasim's sponge iron unit and Indian Rayon's sea water magnesia units would be considered non-core for the purpose of group rationalisation, Kumarmangalam Birla said at a press conference that any finalcomment would have to await a report after the portfolio analysis exercise. Grasim, Birla said on the other hand, would be left with two core businesses (viscose staple fibre and cement) and sponge iron was not among them.

Birla made it clear in answer to a related question to The Financial Express that the group, if at all it sells any assets, will do so from a position of strength. "We are not desperate sellers, we are a very strong group with very strong cash flows," said Birla. "Our decisions will be based on two simple principles: profit maximisation and shareholder value creation."

Birla said that the restructuring was the beginning of a larger process, part of a blueprint for the new millennium. The Boston Consultancy Group, (whose managing director Rohit Bhagat was present at the press conference), is working with the group to help reposition the Aditya Vikram Birla group.

The group will also clearly be a major participant in the consolidation process unleashed across industry sectors byliberalisation. "We will benefit from the consolidation which we have already seen in cement, and is bound to happen in textiles, as marginal players make their exit," said Birla at the press conference.

The group has no plans to withdraw from its telecom venture, as reported in certain sections of the media recently, said Birla. "We are very hopeful that with the government extending the licence fee payment period from 10 to 15 years, and maybe other policy boosts in the offing, this industry is going to generate very good long-term returns: we are not thinking of an exit now," he said.