GM, Kellogg record huge losses

NEW DELHI, JUNE 22: Around six years after it first entered the country, Kellogg has accumulated losses of just under Rs 70 crore -- losse...

NEW DELHI, JUNE 22: Around six years after it first entered the country, Kellogg has accumulated losses of just under Rs 70 crore — losses for the year ended March 1999 were Rs 20.7 crore on sales of Rs 47.6 crore. Since Kellogg started off with around Rs 193 crore of cash, however, its net worth remains comfortable, at around Rs 122 crore.

And six years after it first set up office here, General Motors India is perilously close to wiping out its entire net worth. On a total income of Rs 248 crore in the twelve months ending

March 1999, General Motors India incurred a loss of Rs 105 crore, taking the total accumulated losses to a whopping Rs 153 crore, and its net worth down to just Rs 6.24 crore! Another year of such losses, and GMI will have wiped out its net worth, unless it gets a major cash infusion.

All this, and more such information on a total of 25,000 unlisted companies — that is, those whose balance sheets are not public knowledge — is now available from the Mumbai-based financial database Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) in a CD. First Source is a tie-up between CMIE and the Department of Company affairs — all registrars of companies (RoCs) come under the DCA, and it is mandatory for all firms to file a copy of their balance sheet with the RoCs.

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So, if you’re looking for information on unlisted companies that you haven’t been able to lay your hands on, this is the place to go.

A word of warning though, you won’t get details of companies like Coke or Pepsi, since they are wholly-owned subsidiaries of foreign firms and do not have to file their balance sheet data. Nor are most of the dotcoms you hear of these days, since most are just a few months old.

Some startling information available from First Source, for instance, is that the virtually unknown Poona Dal & Besan Mills in Pune, which is involved in milling of dals , has a total turnover of Rs 208 crore, and profits of Rs 68 crore! That was for the year ended March 1998, it’s probably a lot higher now.

And if you’re wondering about profits in the media world, the Bennett Coleman group had a turnover of Rs 908 crore in 1999, a profit of Rs 126 crore, and net worth of Rs 690 crore. The Hindustan Times’ income is around a third, at Rs 326 crore, and its profit is Rs 18 crore.