The Bird Group comprises the following Companies:
1.
THE ORISSA MINERALS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
LIMITED
2. THE BISRA STONE LIME COMPANY LIMITED
3. THE KARANPURA DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED
5. EASTERN INVESTMENTS LIMITED
6. THE BURRAKUR COAL COMPANY LIMITED
7.
THE BORREA COAL
COMPANY LIMITED
Out of these seven companies OMDC, BSLC & KDCL are in the mining sector whereas SSL which is wholly owned subsidiary of KDCL is engaged in sinking of deep tube wells and mineral exploration activities. EIL is an investment company having major stakes in all three mining companies i.e. OMDC, BSLC and KDCL. Burrakur and Borrea, the erstwhile Coal mining companies are now under liquidation through Court order virtually inoperative.
PROFILE OF EACH
COMPANY
THE ORISSA MINERALS
DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED (OMDC)
The company was incorporated in the year 1918. Its
authorised share capital is Rs.0.60 crore.
Its mines are located around Barbil in Keonjhar District of Orissa. This is one of the oldest iron ore mining
companies.
After the company came under the
administrative control of the Ministry of Steel, Government of India, the
Government extended financial support to the company in the following areas :
(a) Development of
Mines
(b)
Clearing outstanding dues.
(c)
Creating facilities for sizing iron ore
and
(d)
Replacement of old/worn out equipment and providing new equipment.
For the purpose of improving the
financial health of the company a number of steps had been taken since 1991-92.
Apart from mining and marketing of iron ore the company spread up its activities in the field of mining and marketing of manganese ore. The company also endeavoured to rationalise
manpower and through the support of the Ministry in the from grant-in-aid 479
nos. of employees of various categories were separated under V R Scheme.
During the financial years
1994-95, 1995-96 and 1996-97 the company was able to achieve marginal profits. Consequent to recession in Iron and Steel
Industry the position deteriorated from 1997-98 since the demand of its
products declined sharply. With the
recessionary trend in the steel industry having been over since 2003 onwards,
the company’s position improved and it had started making significant amount of
profit after tax. The company repaid
government loan it had to take to overcome financial crisis and arranged to
make payment of entire outstanding interest thereon in the year 2002-03. Consequently, the company has been running
free from debts from the year 2003-04.
With a view to sharing the profit with the shareholders the company
started making payment of dividend from the year 2003-04 onwards.
In order to exploit the favourable scenario in respect of iron ore
the company initiated measures for development of new zones in the leasehold
areas for the purpose of augmenting
production. As a measure towards
diversification it had set up a 100 TPD Sponge Iron Plant in June 2004 and the
plant started making commercial production.
The company also initiated measures to enhance the crushing capacity by
installing and commissioning of additional crushing and screening plant. The company entered into the venture of
direct export of iron ore fines from the year 2005-06 and earned good amount of
foreign exchange.
Company’s constraint lies in the
pendency of renewal of three nos. of mining leases operated by it. Effort is being made to get the leases
renewed and transfer in company’s name.
The company has a joint venture in
the name and style of East India Minerals Limited (EIML) with stake of 26% in
its paid up equity share capital. The
JVC was set up in the year 1992 for production of sponge grade iron ore
.It started commercial production from
September 1999. It has a crushing and screening plant of one million tonne
capacity. With the growing demand of
iron ore financial health of JVC also improved considerably and it declared
interim dividend during the year 2006-07.
G O T O T O P | G O T O
H O M E
THE BISRA STONE LIME COMPANY LIMITED (BSLC)
The company was incorporated in the year 1910. Its authorised share capital is Rs.0.50
crore. It is engaged in mining and marketing
of Limestone and Dolomite. The company has mining leases in Birmitrapur in the
District of Sundargarh, Orissa. Due to change in steel making technology the
demand for BSLC’s products declined considerably resulting in financial
imbalance arising out of sharp fall in the company’s turn over.
After the
company came under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel,
Government of India, the Government extended support to the company in the form
of Plan Loan, Non Plan Loan and Grant in aid for rationalization of
manpower. The company’ s product mix
was also changed and measures were taken to improve upon the quality. Consequent upon taking such actions the
company could earn positive gross margin i.e. margin before charging
depreciation and interest on Government Loan in the year 1995-96. The position
however deteriorated again from 1996-97 initially due to labour trouble and
thereafter due to demand constraints since 1997-98 arising out of recession in
Steel Industry.
With the Government’s help the
company has taken major steps for rationalization of manpower through
implementation of Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). The company has been able to
separate 3094 nos. of employees through VRS from the period 1.4.1992 till
31.03.2007. Against manpower strength
of 5115 as on 1.4.1992 the strength as on 31.03.07 stood at 1234. This has enabled BSLC to control the wage
related cost to significant extent.
Recessionary
trend in the steel sector having been over and demand position improved, the
company has been making endeavor to step up production/despatch of its
products. The company has taken
appropriate steps for development of the new zones in the leasehold areas,
installation of new Crushing Plant with added crushing capacity and also
modification/up gradation of the existing Crushing Plants and Railway
siding. It has entered into MOU with
SAIL for despatch of its products to SAIL Steel Plants in Eastern Sector. With
all these measures the company’s position has improved and it has been
achieving positive gross margin before charging interest on Government loan and
depreciation.
G O T O T O P | G O T O
H O M E
THE KARANPURA DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED
(KDCL)
The company was
incorporated in the year 1920. Its
authorised share capital is Rs.0.40 crore. The subscribed and paid up capital
of the company is Rs.0.20 crore only. The mines are located around Sirka, Dist.
Hazaribagh. Jharkhand. It is engaged in the mining and marketing of limestone
suitable for cement manufacturing.
Earlier the company had
Refractory Unit. With the plant being
obsolete the Refractory Unit had to be closed and manpower belonging to the
Refractory Unit had to be shifted to mining division resulting in huge
employment cost and surplus manpower.
KDCL initiated steps to
rationalise surplus manpower through implementation of Voluntary Retirement
Scheme (VRS). Out of overall strength
of 203 as on 01.04.1992 total 132 nos. of employees were separated under the
scheme with the financial support received from the Government of India in the
form of Grant-in-aid.
The activities of the company almost came to standstill from December 1995 onwards when pursuant to a notification issued by the Government of India; mining of limestone through contractors was prohibited. The performance of the company suffered serious set back and the liquidity problem cropped up. The company could resume normal mining operations from December 1996 onwards with the help of departmental workers and through deployment of hired equipment for raising of limestone. The company approached the appropriate authority for allowing contract mining and the same has been granted on periodical basis. The company has been continuing its activities by resorting to contract mining on the basis of the strength of such sanctioning of contract mining. The company is not having surface right and as such has to engage village committee for the raising of ores, to avoid local problems.
The present strength of the company is 55 only resulting in
reduced employment cost.
Demand for cement grade limestone is fluctuating and
consequently the company’s performance is also affected. The company has been making efforts to
overcome the situation.
G O T O
T O P | G O T O H O M E
The company was incorporated in
the year 1924 with an authorised and paid up capital of Rs.0.01 crore
only. It is wholly owned subsidiary of
The Karanpura Development Company Limited (KDCL). SSL is mainly engaged in the
activities of sinking deep tube wells and mineral exploration.
The company was compelled to
declare ‘Suspension of Work’ at its factory at Hide Road, Kolkata and also at
all the working sites because of continued disruption of the normal working
environment from November, 1992.
Suspension of Work was lifted effective from 01.11.1996 after a
Tripartite Memorandum of Settlement was signed on 19.08.1996 by representatives
of Government of West Bengal, workmen of negotiating unions and the management
of SSL and the activities restarted at all
the workshops and the work
sites. The company started its
activities again but set back due
to suspension of work for such a long
period could not be overcome to the fullest extent. Moreover, the company has been suffering from dearth of orders in
its original area of work i.e. sinking of deep tubewells because of restriction
imposed in various States on extraction of ground water. It has major orders in Tripura. In other
States however it is not getting sufficient order. Consequently the financial health of the company is in bad
shape. All out endeavour is however
being made to overcome the situation.
Present strength of the company is
99.
The status of SSL was that of
deemed public company before amendment of Companies Act, 2000. Consequent to
the enactment of the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2000, the status of SSL changed
to that of a public limited company and the company’s authorised and paid up capital
was raised from 0.01 crore to Rs.0.05 crore.
G O T O T O P | G O T O
H O M E
EASTERN INVESTMENTS LIMITED (EIL)
Eastern Investments Limited (EIL)
was incorporated in the year 1927. It
is an Investment Company. The erstwhile
Bird & Co Ltd used to have controlling stake in other companies under its
management through EIL. With the
nationalization of the undertaking of the Bird & Co Ltd, EIL came under the
administrative control of the Ministry of Steel, Government of India. Six
investment companies under erstwhile company were merged with EIL in the year
1984 vide CLB’s order under section 396 of the Companies Act. EIL has major stake in the mining companies
under the Group viz. OMDC, BSLC and KDCL.
EIL had both equity share capital
and preference share capital. Company’s income having been low it was not in a
position to make payment of preferential dividend which accumulated thus
creating almost a stalemate condition.
With the Court’s sanction compromise settlement was arrived at with the
preference shareholders by paying a part of the capital and preferential
dividend and reducing balance amount of the capital. Consequently, EIL has now only equity share capital. Because of its major stake in OMDC it has of
late been earning good amount of dividend and as a consequence the financial
health of the company has improved considerably.
G O T O T O P | G O T O
H O M E
THE BURRAKUR COAL
COMPANY LIMITED AND THE BORREA COAL COMPANY LIMITED
These two companies were Coal
Mining Companies under the Bird Group.
The coalmines were nationalized in the year 1971 and 1972 and after that
these two companies turned inoperative.
In 1980 they came under the administrative fold of the Ministry of
Steel, Government of India along with five other companies as mentioned
earlier.
These two companies survived only
to receive the compensation from the Commissioner of Payment’s office on
settlement of claims of the creditors and also to deal with other day to day
matters including income tax demands.
Both these two companies had preference share capital. With the sanction of the Calcutta High Court
compromise settlement was made with the preference shareholders and it had been
possible on the part of these two companies to be free from preference share
capital.
Since both the companies had
become virtually defunct with the nationalisation of coal mines, the High Court at Calcutta was moved for
winding up of these two companies after obtaining clearance from the Ministry
of Steel as well as the Ministry of Coal.
The Hon'ble High Court passed the order for winding-up on 5th
October 2005 and official liquidator had taken over the assets and liabilities
of the companies. So both the companies
are now under process of liquidation.