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Lodha chairs Birla Corp meeting
Wednesday, 15 September 2004, 19:30 IST
KOLKATA: R.S. Lodha, who is hoping to inherit the 
50 billion ($1.09 billion) MP Birla group, Wednesday chaired the annual general meeting of the conglomerate's flagship company amidst resentment among shareholders against him.
Pandemonium broke out as many shareholders protested his chairing the meeting of Birla Corporation and rushed towards the dais. Security men stopped them.
While Lodha proposed company director and UTI nominee Dharmendra Bhandari's name as chairman for the meeting, the latter in turn suggested Lodha do the honours.
A voting was carried out and Lodha was elected to chair the meeting with 99.99 percent votes. This matter took up two hours.
Once it was decided who would chair the meeting, the day's business began and nine items on the agenda were considered.
All the items were put to vote. The results of six items were to be announced later Wednesday evening.
But the result of the remaining three items -- pertaining to the re-appointment of three directors -- would be kept with the company secretary till the company law board decided on a petition trying to stop Lodha from being re-appointed a director.
Some shareholders urged the company law board earlier this week to stop Lodha from being re-appointed as a director of Birla Corporation on grounds of bad governance.
After the meeting, managing director K.C. Mittal announced a plethora of plans for the company that notched 366.9 million ($7.97 million) cash profit in 2003-04. The company achieved record production during the year.
Mittal said the company would invest 1 billion ($21.72 million) in its Durgapur cement plant through debts and internal accruals. The unit would be called Durga Hi-tech Unit.
Once complete, the unit's production capacity would be augmented to six million tonnes a year from the current 5.2 million tonnes. The upgrade would be completed by 2005.
The company was also installing two power plants of 25 MW each in Satna and Chittor by June 2005. The cost of each unit would be 950 million ($20.63 million).
He said the company was considering closing Birla Synthetic that has been a losing concern for some time now.
"We are looking into what can be done about Birla Carbide and DLW," Mittal said, referring to two more units that are loss-making ventures for the group.
Lodha told shareholders the company was moving Sura Jute Mill to Birla Jute Mill in Birlapur.
Lodha is claiming inheritance of the MP Birla group on the strength of a registered will purportedly left behind by its decreased chief Priyamvada Birla.
But the rest of the Birla family has doubted the veracity of the will and challenged it Calcutta High Court.
The Birlas have said MP Birla group assets should not go out of the family under the undivided Hindu family law, but Lodha's lawyers have argued that the claim was untenable because the Birla family business had long been divided since the time of G.D. Birla.
The Birla family, which has united in their opposition to Lodha's inheritance of the MP Birla group fortunes, has said it was "very surprised" with Priyamvada's will because she had expressed her wish to transfer all her wealth to a charitable trust.
M.P. Birla and Priyamvada did not have any children, but the Birla family had expected Priyamvada to pass on the group's reins to their nephew's son Yashovardhan Birla or bequeath it all to a trust.
Lodha, also a top chartered accountant, came to be associated with the group as an advisor about two decades ago. He became close to M.P. Birla and, after the latter's death, won the confidence of Priyamvada.
He was later made the group's co-chairman and was part of every major decision.
Source: IANS
50 billion ($1.09 billion) MP Birla group, Wednesday chaired the annual general meeting of the conglomerate's flagship company amidst resentment among shareholders against him.
Pandemonium broke out as many shareholders protested his chairing the meeting of Birla Corporation and rushed towards the dais. Security men stopped them.
While Lodha proposed company director and UTI nominee Dharmendra Bhandari's name as chairman for the meeting, the latter in turn suggested Lodha do the honours.
A voting was carried out and Lodha was elected to chair the meeting with 99.99 percent votes. This matter took up two hours.
Once it was decided who would chair the meeting, the day's business began and nine items on the agenda were considered.
All the items were put to vote. The results of six items were to be announced later Wednesday evening.
But the result of the remaining three items -- pertaining to the re-appointment of three directors -- would be kept with the company secretary till the company law board decided on a petition trying to stop Lodha from being re-appointed a director.
Some shareholders urged the company law board earlier this week to stop Lodha from being re-appointed as a director of Birla Corporation on grounds of bad governance.
After the meeting, managing director K.C. Mittal announced a plethora of plans for the company that notched 366.9 million ($7.97 million) cash profit in 2003-04. The company achieved record production during the year.
Mittal said the company would invest 1 billion ($21.72 million) in its Durgapur cement plant through debts and internal accruals. The unit would be called Durga Hi-tech Unit.
Once complete, the unit's production capacity would be augmented to six million tonnes a year from the current 5.2 million tonnes. The upgrade would be completed by 2005.
The company was also installing two power plants of 25 MW each in Satna and Chittor by June 2005. The cost of each unit would be 950 million ($20.63 million).
He said the company was considering closing Birla Synthetic that has been a losing concern for some time now.
"We are looking into what can be done about Birla Carbide and DLW," Mittal said, referring to two more units that are loss-making ventures for the group.
Lodha told shareholders the company was moving Sura Jute Mill to Birla Jute Mill in Birlapur.
Lodha is claiming inheritance of the MP Birla group on the strength of a registered will purportedly left behind by its decreased chief Priyamvada Birla.
But the rest of the Birla family has doubted the veracity of the will and challenged it Calcutta High Court.
The Birlas have said MP Birla group assets should not go out of the family under the undivided Hindu family law, but Lodha's lawyers have argued that the claim was untenable because the Birla family business had long been divided since the time of G.D. Birla.
The Birla family, which has united in their opposition to Lodha's inheritance of the MP Birla group fortunes, has said it was "very surprised" with Priyamvada's will because she had expressed her wish to transfer all her wealth to a charitable trust.
M.P. Birla and Priyamvada did not have any children, but the Birla family had expected Priyamvada to pass on the group's reins to their nephew's son Yashovardhan Birla or bequeath it all to a trust.
Lodha, also a top chartered accountant, came to be associated with the group as an advisor about two decades ago. He became close to M.P. Birla and, after the latter's death, won the confidence of Priyamvada.
He was later made the group's co-chairman and was part of every major decision.
Source: IANS