MUMBAI, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Optical fibre and power cable maker RPG Cables (RPG.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to sell land near Mumbai to clear debt, a senior official said on Friday.
The company owns 15 acres (6 hectares) in Thane and does not need more than half of it, Pradipta K Mohapatra, chief executive- technology business of the diversified RPG group, said at a press meet.
Mohapatra oversees the operations of RPG cables, RPG Life Science RPGL.BO and Zensar Technologies (
"The money can be used to clear our entire debt," he said. "The interest outgo can also be saved."
Loss-ridden RPG cables has a debt of 1.07 billion rupees and pays an annual interest of about 140 million rupees.
Indian firms are selling surplus land in large cities to fund expansion, repay debt and to tap record land prices that have more-than-doubled in the last two years.
RPG Cables, with little orders coming through, had closed two plants for nearly four years, but restarted one after a 333.1 million rupees order from the state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (
It had also cut employees to 400 from 1,500 and will take a decision on staying or exiting the telecoms cable business in early 2008/09, Mohapatra said.
The company is expected to return profits in 2007/08, he added. (Reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram, editing by Harish Nambiar)
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