Mumbai: Finolex Industries is planning to augment its PVC manufacturing capacity at its Ratnagiri plant in Maharashtra. A meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on 24 September 2002 to consider expansion of PVC manufacturing capacity.

Finolex Industries had mopped up about 13.39 per cent of the companys paid-up capital from the open market under the buyback scheme. The shares were purchased at a total consideration of Rs 55.4 crore.

The company purchased some 199,78,977 lakh shares from the open market. In April last, the board of Finolex Industries had approved the proposal to buy back shares at a maximum of Rs 40 a share. The company had, at that time, decided it will not invest more than Rs 60 crore in the buyback programme.

The shares were bought at an average price of Rs 27.73 apiece. Though the company stopped buying its equity shares from 21 March 2002, the buyback plan was completed only on 2 April 2002. The company has announced another buyback programme, which will be open from 19 August 2002 to 26 July 2003, and the board had budgeted a maximum of Rs 350 million for the scheme.

The companys paid-up equity capital comprises 14,91,97,241 shares of Rs 10 each, aggregating to Rs 149.12 crore as on 10 April 2001. Post-buyback, the companys equity capital stands at 12,92,18,264 shares, aggregating Rs 129.14 crore.

This has increased the promoters holding by about 2.46 percentage points to 18.06 per cent. The shareholding of Finolex Cables, an associate company, and its subsidiary companies has increased from 26.9 per cent to 31.10 per cent.