PPL turns around, posts Rs 12.7 crore profit for the first time

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, July 22: It’s a story of successful disinvestment of a perennially loss-making fertiliser unit. Leading fertiliser manufacturer Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL), sold by the Union government in 2002 to a private company, has finally made a turnaround by posting a profit of Rs 12.7 crore in 2005-06, after decades of losses.According to PPL managing director S.S. Nandur Dikar the company, which has its DAP fertiliser plant in Paradeep, 120 km from here, had been running losses since it was set up in 1983 as a government of India undertaking and later in joint venture with Nauru government. As part of disinvestment exercise by the NDA government, the PPL, the second largest producer of phosphatic fertilisers was sold in 2002 to Zuari Maroc Phosphates Private Limited, a joint venture of the K.K. Birla Group and fertiliser giant OCP Group of Morocco. In 2005-06, it came out of the red for the first time, Mr Nandur Dikar added saying that PPL has been able to produce 12.58 lakh tonnes of DAP and complex fertilizers during 2005-06 as against 10.21 lakh tons in the preceding year registering an increase of 23 per cent.Total sales of Rs 1971.3 crores in the year against Rs. 1595 crore in the previous year registered an increase of 23.6 per cent.PPL holds the number one or two position in market share in most primary market areas. PPL products sell in 16 states. During the year sales touched a new high of 14.40 lakh tonnes comprising of 12.68 lakh tons of PPL's own produced fertilizers and the balance of 1.72 lakh tonnes of MOP.