Mumbai: Indo Gulf Industries Ltd has approved, in principle, the proposal to restructure the company’s operations by transfer and disposal of the explosive division as a going concern to a wholly-owned subsidiary.

It has also constituted a committee of directors for implementing the proposal. The committee has been empowered to seek all such approvals as may be required and also to convene an EGM of shareholders and conduct a postal ballot under section 192A of the Companies Act.

Indo Gulf had recorded a 35-per cent rise in its net profit for the first quarter. This is with improved copper prices and a debt recast that saved on interest outgo. The company’s net profit stood at Rs 68 crore for the quarter ended 30 June 2002, as against Rs 50 crore in the same period the previous year.

Sales amounted to Rs 714 crore, up 23 per cent from the first quarter of the previous year. Of this, the copper business alone accounted for Rs 612 crore, while the rest came from fertiliser segment.

Improvement in the copper sector has accelerated the company’s shift from being a fertiliser-centric firm. The copper turnover is 35 per cent more than that in the corresponding quarter the previous year. The debt revamp programme has enabled the company to prune its interest charges by 17 per cent, leading to a saving of Rs 5 crore.

The bulk of Indo Gulf’s turnover came from copper exports. Shipments to its markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East grew to 16,754 tonnes, as against just 5,076 tonnes last year. Analysts attribute the improved performance to an increase in capacity at the company’s Dahej facility to 2 lakh tonnes form 1.5 lakh tonnes.

The company is now in the race for the public sector metal producer Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL), which has been put on the disinvestment block by the government. While it was earlier proposed that the government will try and disinvest HCL in phases, the latest indication is that the entire government stake will be divested in one go.