History of Birla Corporation Ltd.
YEAR EVENTS 1919 - The Comp. was incorporated at Calcutta. The main object of Comp. is to Manufacture Jute goods, calcium carbide, oxygen and acetylene gases, synthetic & viscose yarn & cement.
- The Cement division comprises Satna Cement works & Birla Vikas Cement [new plants] at Satna [M.P.s]; the Birla Cement Works at Chittorgarh [Rajasthans] & Durgapur Cement Works at Durgapur [W. Bengals].
- The Jute Mills division comprises of Birla Jute Mill at Birlapur, Bally Jute Mills [Bally-1s] at Bally & Soorah Jute Mills [Bally-2s] at Narkeldanga, all in W. Bengal.
- The staple fibre division is known as 'Birla Synthetics' & the calcium carbide division is known as 'Birla Carbide and Gases'.
1964 - The Oxygen and Acetylene Gas Unit was commissioned in August. The Comp. also entered into an agreement with Indian Oxygen, Calcutta, for exlusive sale of its products on principal to principal basis.
1966 - In August, 3,98,906 Bonus Equity shares issued in prop. 1:4.
1967 - 7.86% II Pref. shares redeemed on 30th Sept., 75,000 III 9.3% Pref. shares issued at par.
1969 - The Comp. entered into an agreement with Hindustan Steel, Ltd. for purchase of blast furnace slag from the Durgapur Steel Plant to set up a slag-cement plant at Durgapur. The Durgapur Slag-Cement unit comprising the fourth cement mill with an integrated E.S.P. unit was commissioned in March 1981.
1970 - In March, 18,94,527 Bonus Equity shares issued in the prop. 1:1.
1979 - 39,89,054 Bonus Equity shares issued in prop. 1:1.
1982 - The Comp. undertook a comprehensive modernisation scheme of its spinning unit phased over three years.
- Bally Jute Co. Ltd., having two units viz. Bally-1 & Bally-2 was amalgamated with the Comp. with effect from 1st April. As per the scheme, a total of 1,02,370 equity shares of Rs 10 each & 30,000 - 15% debentures of Rs 100 each were allotted to the members of Bally Jute Co. limited These debentures are redeemable at par on March '90. The Bally-1 Jute Mill & Bally-2 Jute Mill have come to be known as Bally Jute Mills & Soorah Jute Mill respectively.
- 4,61,848 No. of equity shares issued on 1.4.1983 [prem. Rs 20 per shares] to financial institutions in conversion of loans/debs. [30,186 shares to ICICI; 1,666 shares to IFCI; 1,43,333 shares to IDBI; 1,43,333 shares to UTI & 1,43,333 shares to GIC & its subsidiariess].
- The Comp. revalued the assets of its Birla Jute Mills, Birla Carbide and Gases & Birla Synthetics, all at Birlapur, Bally Jute Mills at Bally & Soorah Jute Mill at Narkeldanga as on 1st April.
1983 - Two diesel generating sets of 4000 KW capacity each were installed & commissioned at Birla Vikas Cement Unit.
- With effect from 7th February, the name of Comp. was changed from the Birla Jute Mfg. Co. limited to Birla Jute & Industries, limited Effective 31st March 1997, the name was again changed from `Birla Jute and Industries Ltd.' to Birla Corp. Ltd.
- With effect from 1st April, the Comp. cancelled its 23,642 - 7 1/2% preference shares of Rs 100 each & issued & allotted in lieu thereof 23,642 - 15% secured non-convertible redeemable debentures of Rs 100 each in the prop. of 1 debenture for every one such preference share. These debentures are redeemable at par on 31st March, 1990 or earlier by giving three months' prior notice.
1984 - The captive thermal plant of 4.5 MW at Chittorgarh was commissioned in December 1985.
- In order to raise funds for substantial expansion in the capacity of cement works at Chittorgarh, the Comp. issued 13 1/2% convertible debentures of Rs 230 each for Rs 11.5 crores & 15% non-convertible debentures of Rs 100 each for another Rs 8 crores, Rs 30 from each convertible debenture was converted into 3 equity shares of Rs 10 each on 1st July 1985.
- 1,43,333 No. of equity shares issued [prem. of Rs 20 per shares] to LIC on 1st September, in part conversion of loan.
1985 - 15,00,000 shares issued at par on 1st July, in conversion of debs. 1,01,85,659 bonus equity shares issued in prop. 1:1.
1986 - A letter of intent was received for increasing the installed capacity from 45,680 spindles to 50,000 spindles. It was implemented during the year.
1987 - The old wet process plant was affected by poor quality of coal but the modern dry process plant was affected by poor quality of coal.
- The Birla Carbide and Gases unit suffered losses on Acc. of increase in the costs of power & carcoal coupled with sharp decline in the realisations.
- A letter of intent was received for setting up of hydrogen peroxide plant of 4,500 TPa capacity on 100% concentration basis. Efforts were made to obtain technology & know-how for the project.
1988 - As a part of modernisation programme, modern jute spreaders were introduced in both Birla & Bally Mills. However, labour union at all the three mills were opposing the modernisation programme fearing retrenchment.
- The inferior quality of coal & labour troubles coupled with sluggish demand for cement reduced the cement capacity utilisation at the old plant in Chittor.
- The production at Birla Carbide and Gases unit was slightly lower due to a six week shut down of plant for relining of furnace & lime kiln.
1989 - An agreement was signed on 18th February, by Comp. & the Soviet Collaborators, viz. Odessa Technical Fabrics Mill & V/o Novoexport to transfer all assets & liabilities of Bally Jute Mills, with effect from 1st April or other date as agreed upon, to a new Joint Venture Company, Birla Odessa Industries limited in consideration of offer of equity shares of paid-up equity share capital of Joint Venture Company.
- A collaboration agreement was signed by Comp. with EMPRWERKE of Germany for manufacture of Automobile interior Door panels based on jute fibre.
- A MOU was signed by Comp. with Maruti Udyog limited to supply door panels manufactured by them.
- The Comp. initiated a fresh programme of modernisation.
- As the long term prospect for manufacture of calcium carbide in W. Bengal is not encouraging, application was made to Govt. for conversion of furnaces to the manufacture of ferro-silicon.
1990 - Production of both cement & clinker & despatches of cement were lower due to the prolonged disruption in production at the chittor cement works & due to labour unrest.
- An application for a letter of intent for expansion at Satna was submitted for expansion of its capacity from 15.5 lakh tonnes to 27.5 lakh tonnes.
- In February, the Comp. allotted 20,00,000-14% secured redeemable non-convertible debentures of 100 each to financial institutions on private placement basis.
1991 - The break-up of USSR, & the suspension of their purchasing during the second half of 1991-92 was a severe blow to the Company. But the benefits couldn't be reaped due to an industry wide strike that led to closure of mills for seven weeks.
- 11,000 high speed ring spindles, three high speed cards, five high speed draw frames were replaced & five sets of autolevellers were installed. In addition, four Volkman TFO machines were also added to augment supply of knotless export yarn.
- With a view to increase export of higher value added jute products, the export yarn unit at Birlapur was being expanded and quality upgraded while a new unit was being set up at Bally to produce high quality export yarn with upto-date technology.
- Operations of Satna plant were adversely affected due to heavy power cuts & shortage & poor quality of coal leading to lower production of clinker & cement.
- The Chittor plant was awarded the second best productivity award for year 1991-92 & 1993-94.
- With the commissioning of two modified kilns with the installed capacity of each kiln increased to 900 TPD while energy consumption got reduced by 25%.
- Birla Vinoleum new PVC floor covering plant was fully installed.
- The Comp. undertook to manufacture Cetaria ferro alloys in one of furnaces of Birla Carbide.
- India Linoleums Ltd., a subsidiary of Comp. was amalgamated with the Comp. effective 1st April. As per the scheme, 1 ordinary share of Rs 10 each of Comp. was issued for every 5 equity shares of Rs 10 each held in India Linoleum, Ltd. Accordingly, 700 ordinary shares of Rs 10 each were allotted to the shareholders of erstwhile India Linoleum, Ltd.
1992 - The closure of Company Bally Jute Mills from 26th August, had also contributed to the low turnover & profits.
- Due to severe labour problems, Bally Jute Mills suspended production from 26th August. The continued loss of markets in Russia & other CIS countries was made up by increased export to GCA markets. Bally Jute Mills reopened on 1st August 1993 with the commissioning of sophisticated export yearn unit & high value fabric unit.
- Production of Birla Synthetics division declined due to the shortage in the supply of viscose staple fibre from Grasim, the major supplier which had a closure of 60 days due to labour problems.
- Additional autoconers, T.F.O. machines & other equipments were commissioned for catering to the export market.
- Installation of high efficiency separators on all cement grinding mills. The cement grinding mill was scheduled to be commissioned by September 1993.
- The Comp. entered into a long term agreement with a German linoleum manufacture for technical help in upgrading the product & marketing it within Europe on a regular basis.
- The revival & remodelling of second submerged arc furnace was undertaken for production of ferro manganese.
1995 - Production of jute declined due to the industrywide strike called by trade unions, shortage of fibre & acute shortage of raw jute resulting in an unprecendented rise in prices.
- The Comp. was setting up Dornier Looms at Birla Jute Mills to produce Lino Hessian & other specialities to give a further boost to the production of export-oriented value added items.
- Two DG sets of 6 MW capacity were to be installed at Satna & Chittor to meet the power shortages.
1996 - A joint venture Comp. `Birla Redland Readymix Ltd.' was incorporated with Redland PLC, UK to set up facilities for manufacture of readymix cement concrete in India.
- The Comp. proposed to set up a 1.2 million plant each at Satna & Chittor.
- India Linoleum unit was demerged from the Comp. under a scheme of arrangement which provided for transfer of all assets and liabilities of India Linoleum unit to Birla-DLW limited a joint venture between the Comp. & DLW Aktiengesellschaft of Germany. This arrangement was effective from 1st April.
1997 - As on 31st March, the Comp. held the entire issued share capital of its subsidiaries, Assam Jute Supply Co. Ltd.
- Shareholders of Birla Jute and Industries Ltd at an extra ordinary general meeting which sought to authorise the board to change the name of Comp. to Birla Corp Ltd & to restructure the present businesses of company.
- Shareholders of Birla Corp [the erstwhile Birla Jute & Industries Ltds] on 16th July approved the company proposal to promote a 50:50 joint venture with Redland Plc of UK, but only after voicing their resentment over the decision.
1998 - Birla Corp limited of M P Birla group is setting up a fly ash-based cement grinding unit at Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.
1999 - The Comp. is using slag in the range of 50-55 per cent with a small percentage of chemical additives to ensure strength, durability & anti-corrosive properties of its cement.
- The company Satna & Durgapur plants have been exporting large quantities of cement to Bangladesh & Nepal where prices have gone down 'substantially on Acc. of cheaper supplies from China & Indonesia & the prevailing prices hardly give any contribution.'
- The company installed capacity will go up to five million tonnes per annum.
2000 - Due to the continuing strike by workers of company unit at Birla Jute Mills, Birlapur, which commenced since March 22, the management of Comp. has been constrained to declare a lock-out of mills with effect from April 3.
- The Comp. to increase the authorised share capital of company from Rs. 75 crores to Rs. 100 crore.
- The Comp. to issue ordinary shares of Comp. on rights basis to the shareholders of Comp. in the ratio of three ordinary shares for every 10 ordinary shares held within a price band of Rs. 20 to Rs. 24.
2002
-Makes it clear not to invest further in Cement business.
-Board approves the proposal to install power plants with a total capacity of 52 MW at its Cement Units at Satna.
2003
-Appoints Shri Jayant Kumar Ray as Nominee Director by IDBI on the board of company, & Shri Pracheta Majumdar as the Additional Director on the Board of company.
-Receives 6 disclosures from Shri N K Kejriwal, Director & his family members.
-Birla Corporation Ltd has informed that Shri. Ajay Saraf, Deputy General Manager, ICICI Bank Ltd., has been appointed as Nominee Director by ICICI Bank Limited in place of Shri Arnab Basu on the Board of company.
-Birla Jute Mills & Soorah Jute Mills have gone on strike on December 29, 2003.
2004
-Birla Corporation Ltd has informed that the ordinary shares of Comp. have been delisted from DSE w.e.f. December 29, 2003.
-Birla Corporation Ltd had informed regarding an indefinite strike at the company units: Birla Jute Mills & Soorah Jute Mills. The Comp. has now informed that following the industry-wide tripartite agreement, the workmen have agreed to call-off the strike immediately & resume normal work in the mills wef 6.00 am of January 10, 2004.
-Chairperson Smt. Priyamvada Birla passes away on July 3, 2004
2007
-Birla Corporation Ltd has appointed Shri. B B Tandon as Director on the Board of Comp. to fill the casual vacancy arising out of sad demise of Shri. P K Kaul.
