Asahi Glass Co. of Japan is planning to buy 20.0 million shares or 26% equity capital of Floatglass India Ltd. from its Indian owners.
In a letter to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Floatglass India said …
Asahi Glass Co. of Japan is planning to buy 20.0 million shares or 26% equity capital of Floatglass India Ltd. from its Indian owners. In a letter to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Floatglass India said Asahi plans to buy 10 million shares from Associated Cement Cos., 6.7 million shares from FIL Tata Engineering Co., and 3.3 million shares from Tata International Ltd. With these acquisitions, at 10.50 rupees ($1=INR 46.59) each, Asahi will hold 75% stake in Floatglass. Asahi will also acquire 600,000 preferred shares, or 5.8% of preferred share capital of Floatglass, from Associated Cement,and Tata International, at INR 124 each. With this purchase, to be completed by 16 April, Asahi will own 100% of the preference capital of Floatglass Ltd. On 9 April this year, Asahi unveiled a three-year business plan that calls for a JPY 400 billion (US$ 3.2 billion) investment, primarily in information- technology-related fields, such as plasma display panels and other next-generation display technology. The company has been shrinking production of plate glass and other unprofitable products, and taking other rationalization measures since fiscal 1999. The new plan, covering fiscal 2001 through fiscal 2003, however, reveals the firm“s intent to concentrate on growth fields and move further away from the glass industry, and increase capital investment by 50% from the preceding three-year period. The plan also aims to boost fiscal 2003 sales to JPY 1.6 trillion, up by 20% from projections for fiscal 2000, while operating profit grows by 45% to JPY 160 billion and after-tax profit increases by 230% to JPY 73 billion. Asahi will accelerate the reorganization of its chemicals division, such as shutting down chemical production at its Kita-Kyushu plant.