OREANDA-NEWS. February 22, 2011. Navratna PSU National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), India’s leading manufacturer and exporter of alumina & aluminium, under the Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India, has declared an interim dividend of 20%, i.e. Rs.2 per share, amounting to Rs.128.86 crore for the financial year 2010-11, on the paid-up equity share capital of Rs.644.31 crore.

A dividend cheque of Rs.112.29 crore on the 87.15% shares (amounting to Rs.561.50 crore), held by the Govt. of India was handed over to Shri Dinsha J. Patel, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Mines, by Shri A.K. Srivastava, CMD, NALCO, in New Delhi today, in the presence of Shri S. Vijay Kumar, Secretary, Shri S.K. Srivastava, Addl. Secretary, Shri S.K. Nayak, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India, and Shri K.N. Ravindra, Company Secretary of NALCO. The balance amount of Rs.16.57 crore is being paid to various institutional and individual shareholders.

NALCO, which started its commercial operations in 1987 has been earning profits consistently and has been declaring dividends since 1992. For the year 2009-10, the Company had declared a total dividend of 25%. The Company had earned a net profit of Rs.814 crore during the year 2009-10. During the current financial year 2010-11, the Company has provisionally earned net profit of Rs.764 crore up to December 2010.

Since its inception, NALCO has paid Rs.16,362 crore as dividend and taxes to government exchequers – Rs.13,597 crore to Central Govt and Rs.2765 crore to State Govt.

In recognition to its outstanding performance, NALCO has recently received the ‘Best Listed CPSE Award’ from Hon’ble Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, among 42 listed Central Public Sector Enterprises. Besides, the Company has also bagged the first prize in the Aluminium sector at the National Energy Conservation Awards – 2010 from Ministry of Power, Govt. of India.

As on 31st March 2010, the Company had Reserves & Surplus amounting to Rs.9751 crore, which is more than 15 times the paid capital of Rs.644.31 crore. Considering the demands of the shareholders year after year and considering the position that the Company is in a comfortable position to service the equity, in terms of profits and expected additional profits on completion of ongoing 2nd phase expansion, the Board has decided, subject to approval of shareholders to issue one bonus share for every one equity share held by the shareholder. Further to increase the liquidity of the shares in the capital market, the Board has also decided, subject to necessary approvals to split the nominal value of equity share from Rs.10/- to Rs.5/-. The Company will issue 2 equity shares of Rs.5/- each against, 1 equity share of Rs.10/- existing as on date. All the procedural actions to implement the splitting of equity shares and issue of Bonus shares will be completed before 31st March 2011.