The Hindu Business Line : Hinduja Foundries slips into red

Chennai, June 15 The Chennai-headquartered Hinduja Foundries reported a net loss of Rs 7.53 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2009 against a net profit of Rs 7 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Net sales from operations in the quarter dropped 53 per cent to Rs 60 crore from Rs 130 crore reported a year ago.

For the year ended March 2009, the company reported a net loss of Rs 12 crore against a net profit of Rs 16.92 crore last year. Net sales dropped 20 per cent to Rs 363 crore (Rs 451 crore).

Company sources said the loss was due to sharp decline in its business from automotive customers, particularly commercial vehicles since second half of 2008-09.

To raise capital

The company has informed the stock exchanges that it has decided to raise further capital of Rs 50 crore to help sustain the operations as well as for the ongoing capacity expansion programmes.

The company has expanded capacity at its Sriperumbudur facility to 72,000 tonnes a year from 50,000 tonnes. However, the low pressure die-cast manufacturing unit in Sriperumbudur and capacity expansion at its Hyderabad plant are progressing slowly due to market slowdown. Originally, these projects were to take off in the second half of 2009-10. Now these will be commissioned on signs of market recovery, sources said.