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Mukand to invest Rs. 300 cr.

Niraj Bajaj replaces Rahul Bajaj as Chairman and Managing Director

— PHOTO: SHASHI ASHIWAL

CHANGE OF GUARD: Niraj Bajaj (left), who has taken charge as Chairman of Mukand from Rahul Bajaj (right), and Rajesh V. Shah, who has become the Co-Chairman, addressing the company’s annual meeting in Mumbai on Saturday.

MUMBAI: Speciality steel maker Mukand, in which Bajaj and Shah families together hold around 40 per cent stake, will embark on a Rs. 300-crore capital expenditure plan for capacity expansion at its two brownfield facilities and setting up of a greenfield plant.

In another development, Niraj Bajaj has taken over as the Chairman and Managing Director of Mukand from Rahul Bajaj. Earlier, Mr. Niraj was Mukand’s Managing Director. Another Managing Director Rajesh Shah has also been promoted as the Co-Chairman of the company.

The company has recorded a three per cent increase in the net profit at Rs. 13.20 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2007, as against Rs. 12.82 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

“The capital infusion will help the company increase its production capacity by 80 per cent to 5.4 lakh tonnes a year from three lakh tonnes at the existing facilities,” the newly-promoted Co-Chairman and Managing Director of the company Rajesh Shah told PTI after the company’s annual general meeting here.

Mukand has two plants at Hospet in Karnataka and at Kalve in Maharashtra.

Mr. Shah said the greenfield facility at Lonand in Maharashtra on a 40-acre land would be set up to create downstream facilities for manufacturing steel wires and bright bars that find use in the auto sector.

“The expansion programme is going on as planned and will be over by March 2009,” Mr. Shah said.

Mukand, which sells 65 per cent of its total steel production to the auto sector, said the company would not be impacted by the ongoing sluggishness in the auto sector since it does not entirely dependent on the domestic auto market.

The company sells 15 per cent to the engineering sector and 20 per cent to stainless steel makers. — PTI

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