MUMBAI, July 22: Century Textiles, the flag ship of the BK Birla group, has recorded an eight per cent increase in sales at Rs 521 crore for the first three months of the cureent financial year, said company director, SK Birla, at the 100th annual general meeting here on Tuesday. Overall performance, however, had not shown any improvement with exports recording a negative growth, he added.

The AGM passed all the resolutions including the sub division of the face value of equity shares from Rs 100 to Rs 10 per share.

Birla said Century was planning to retire its costly rupee debt by replacing it with cheaper foreign currency loans. This will lead to an eight per cent reduction in interest cost, he said. The number of shareholders has gone up to 55,000 and the institutional holdings remains at 28 per cent, he added. The company will go for a $100 million non convertible bonds issue, he said.

"I cannot make any prediction on the performance of the company in the current year due to unfavourable policies of the government. It should take measures to increase cement consumption and boost exports," he said, replying to a shareholder's query.

Cotton would be the focus of the textile division and there are no plans to start production of synthetic products, he said. The withdrawal of anti-dumping duty by the European Commission would boost cotton fabrics exports, he added.

The 100 per cent export oriented denim unit at Satrat in Madhya Pradesh has gone on stream in March. Century does not expect any threat from major players like Arvind. The cement division continues to be a poor performer due to poor offtake due to the recession in construction industry and curtailment of orders by government departments, Birla said. The average price realisation of cement has come down in the North in April-June, he added.The shipping division has continued to modernise its fleet. One of the carriers, MV Adithya Vardhan, was sold during the current financial.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.