Annual Report 1999-2000
TAMILNADU TELECOMMUNICATIONS LIMITED
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure in welcoming you all to the Twelfth Annual
General Meeting ot your Company. The Directors Report and the Audited
Accounts for the year ended 31st March 2000 have been with you and with
your permission I take them as read.
PERFORMANCE IN THE LAST YEAR
The year 1999-2000 was a remarkably fruitful year for your Company with
manifold achievements in all the functional areas - Production, Sales and
Collections. We have surpassed the highest records set up in 1998-1999 for
these parameters, by wide margins. I am very happy to state that the
production in the JFTC factory at Arakkonam has crossed 9 LCKM, and
despatches exceeded 8.75 LCKM, recording an improvement of 25.6% in
production and 26.67% in despatches (Sales) compared to the previous year.
During 1999-2000, the Turnover of the Company grew up by 40.8%, the
Operating Profit by 22.4%, and Net Profit by 25% over the previous year.
This saga of successful operations has enabled your Directors to recommend
a Maiden Dividend of a total of 7.5% for the year 1999-2000.
The following significant achievements of TTL in 1999-2000 merit special
mention:
* The installed capacity of the JFTC Plant at Arakkonam has been enhanced
from 1.2 Million CKM to 1.7 Million CKM with a marginal addition of
machinery lines and testing facilities.
* The landmark achievement of your Company was the successful completion of
the OFC factory project at Maraimalai Nagar within a remarkably short span
of about one year,inspite of machinery and cash-flow problems. The
machinery imported from Finland was installed and commissioned by our own
engineers under the supervision of Nextrom / Fujikura Experts. The facility
received Infrastructure Clearance from DoT on 6th July 1999, after due
evaluation. Commencing from 24th June 1998, when the foundation stone was
laid for the factory by the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, the whole
process of civil construction works, installation and commissioning of
machinery lines, utilities etc., testing and commissioning followed by
infrastructure approval by DoT, has taken slightly more than one year,
which is a remarkable achievement for any telecom cable manufacturing
industry in India.
The OFC Plant could successfully go through the procedures of Prototype
Production, Type Approval and Bulk Production Clearance by DoT QA and TEC,
New Delhi. TTL successfully participated and won its first commercial order
from Karnataka Telecom Circle on 25th November, 1999 and commenced
commercial production w.e.f. 1st December, 1999.
* The OFC factory won the coveted IS / ISO 9002 International Standards
Certification within a significantly short time of about 2 months on the
23rd of February 2000 from BIS, accredited by RVA, Netherlands.
* Within a short period of 4 months of commercial production, the OFC
factory has executed orders for over 1000 Cable Kms. worth about Rs. 450
lakhs.
* The Group twinner machinery intended for the manufacture of smaller size
cables upto 20 pairs. at a cost of about Rs.1.20 crores, financed from
internal resources, have been installed and commissioned in the JFTC Plant
during the year. This was a major factor in enhancing the certification of
the plant capacity.
PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE
During the first quarter of 2000 - 2001, the OFC Plant has executed orders
for 1100 Cable Kms. of 6F OFC successfully. It has also won the largest
order for 1 2F OFC from DoT, New Delhi of 4756 Kms valued at about Rs 26
crores.
The enhanced installed capacity of the JFTC Plant along with excellent
delivery rating and competitive price rating of TTL has helped your Company
to bag the largest ever order of 8,50,000 CKM from Dept. of Telecom, the
APO for which was issued in August
I am very glad to inform you that, your Company has also won the FIRST
Export Order for OF Cable in August, 2000 from M/s. Ahmed Yousef Behbahani
Est. KUWAIT for 22 Kms. of 24F cable, through TCIL.
Your Company has actively pursued certification from RDSO of the Ministry
of Railways and after the Inspections & Prototype Testing, Type Approvals
have been issued. This will enable the Company to take part in Railway
tenders for OF and JFT Cables.
Your Company has also actively interacted with some leading private telecom
/ internet service companies for supply of OFC, and, is hopeful of
finalising some contracts during the Year.
The existing scenario of growing demand for OF Cables has prompted the
Company to immediately take up the expansion plan for the OFC Plant at
Maraimalai Nagar from 7900 Cable Kms. to 15000 Cable Kms. with an estimated
project cost of Rs.3.5 crores. The machinery lines for this expansion
projects are scheduled for supplies during September, and, the installation
and commissioning is expected to be completed in another 2 months.
Manufacture of high bandwidth DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiflexing) OF
cables required for high density backbone routes, are proposed to be taken
up shortly in collaboration with our Promoter M/s. Fujikura of Japan.
Expansion of the OFC Plant by vertical integration with the setting up of
fibre drawing facility, and, further expansion of the cable manufacturing
capacity upto 24,000 Kms. is under active techno-economic evaluation.
OUTLOOK FOR 2000-2001
TTL received an add-on order for 1,75,000 CKM, for JFTC from DoT based on
excellent delivery rating in February 2000, which it has successfully
executed by May 2000. As indicated by me earlier, TTL has won large orders
for both JFTC and OFC Plants from the Department of Telecom, the value of
which exceeds Rs. 80 crores. In addition, taking into account the contracts
being pursued with Non-DoT organisations for Optic fibre cables, your
Company can hope to exceed a turnover of Rs.100 crores during this
financial year.
The excellent performance of TTL during the year has attracted the
attention of the Industry and the Media and, TTL has been listed as one of
the Top eleven telecom cable manufacturing companies in India by the
reputed communications magazine - Voice & Data in its survey for 1999-2000
published in the July issue.
The enhanced operations of the OFC and the JFTC Plants forecast a really
bright future for your Company in the ensuing years.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Before I conclude, I would like to place on record, the excellent co-
operation received by your Company in its operations from all the three
Promoters, the Govt. of India & the Govt. of Tamilnadu, our Bankers - State
Bank of India, Punjab National Bank & Andhra Bank. I also thank our
esteemed customers - DoT & MTNL, suppliers of raw materials, machineries
and services to our factory for their unstinting support to our operations.
I do hope that all the share holders will unhesitatingly join me in
extending our sincere appreciation to the TTL Team as a whole, and, to each
and every TTL employee in particular, for turning out such an excellent
performance during the year. I do hope that they will continue to excel
their own record of performance in the coming years also.
Thank you.
R. GOPALAN
28th September, 2000 Chairman