Rallis India, the agrichemicals arm of the Tatas which is in the midst of a restructuring, has identified farm management services, specialty fertilisers and seeds as its future growth areas. The company is also stepping up its exports in pesticides.

"The company will shift its focus from the US, western Europe destinations to south-east Asia, Australia, Africa, Sri Lanka and Vietnam," Rajeev Dubey, managing director, said. Freddie Mehta, chairman, said, "For the company, the ongoing year is going to be a tough one for a variety of reasons." The poor monsoon, the economy in general will have a impact on the company. The total impact of the delay in monsoons on the pesticides industry will be 10-15 per cent in 2002-03.

The company had undertaken initiatives which included sharpening of business and product portfolios, introduction of new products and reducing costs. The company(including its subsidiaries) has also reduced its workforce by 935 employees from 3,120 employees in September 2000. Mehta said, "The merger of five wholly owned subsidiaries(except Siris India) with itself, could not be completed with effect from 
April 1, 2001 owing to non-receipt of certain NOCs. The board has therefore decided to reconsider the date of merger with effective April 1, 2002."

The five subsidiaries have a combined loss of Rs 36 crore for the year ended March 31, 2002, of which operating losses are Rs 9 crore and non-operational/one time losses are Rs 27 crore.

"In anticipation of the merger in the current financial year, the company has retained an appropriate amount in its surplus account, for the year ended march 31, 2002 to absorb this loss, and the implementation of the scheme of amalgamation will not have any adverse impact on the profits for the current financial year, Mehta said. During the year, Rallis received extraordinary one-time cash inflows of Rs 174 crore from four sources—from the sale of Andheri land (Rs 116 crore), the balance sale proceeds from the sale of pharmaceutical business (Rs 17.4 crore), post assessment tax refund (Rs 34 crore) and sale of Chennai property (Rs 6 crore).

"Between Rallis and Ralchem, we reduced the overall indebtedness by as much as Rs 164 crore. Rs 123 crore of reduction of debt in Rallis and Rs 41 crore in Ralchem. We made a settlement with the State Bank of India and ICICI Bank to resolve long standing matters which cost us Rs 19 crore," Mehta said. The company had also refinanced Rs 122 crore of high-cost borrowings with low-cost fresh debts.

Rallis and Ralchem’s total borrowings has reduced significantly from Rs 668 crore in December 31, 2000 to Rs 445 crore as on March 31, 2002. Its cash from operations increased by Rs 35 crore for 2001-02.