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HPCL profit up by 28.5 per cent, announces 110 per cent dividend

The board of directors of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited at a meeting held in Bombay today has recommended an equity dividend of 110 per cent for the financial year 1998-99.

The discussions regarding the issue of bonus shares were inconclusive.

HPCL recorded a net profit of Rs 9.01 billion for the year 1998-99 as compared to Rs 7.01 billion for the year 1997-98.

The corporation has recorded a turnover of Rs 259.94 billion for the period as against Rs 205.12 billion the previous year, showing a growth of 26.7 per cent.

Net worth has increased by 20.8 per cent to Rs 518.77 billion. HPCL refineries have recorded a throughput of 9.07 million tonnes as against 8.84 million tonnes the previous year.

Sales at 16.98 million tonnes were higher as against 16 million tonnes the previous year, an increase of 6.12 per cent.

The government recently reconstituted the board of HPCL by appointing four non-official part-time directors and extended the navratna status -- nine blue chip public sector undertakings -- to the corporation.

The company has several ongoing mega projects and the major among them includes a grass-root refinery project of nine million tonnes at Bhatinda in Punjab, which is being set up as a joint venture.

The capacity expansion of the corporation's Visakhapatnam refinery from 4.5 to 7.5 million tonnes per annum is expected to be ready by September 1999. The diesel hydro-desulphurisation plants costing Rs 7.50 billion each being set up at the corporation's Bombay and Visakhapatnam refineries are nearing completion.

The release further stated that HPCL's joint venture company, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited is implementing the expansion of its capacity from three million tonnes to nine million tonnes per annum which is expected to be ready by the end of the year.

The corporation is also considering setting up a 500 mega-watt power plant based on vacuum tower residue from its refinery at Visakhapatnam in joint venture with Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board. A liquid petroleum gas cavern storage project with a capacity of 60,000 metric tonnes in visakhapatnam in joint venture with Total SA of France is also under consideration.

A joint venture company in association with ICICI, TDICI and HDFC to undertake oil exploration and production activities has been incorporated.

During the Ninth Plan period, the corporation has planned significant investments for modernising its refineries, achieve value addition/improvement of product quality to meet new standards, setting up of new product pipelines and development of marketing network to meet the challenges ahead.

UNI

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