Govt cuts ECB periodNEW DELHI: The government had decided to reduce the cooling off period for external commercial borrowing (ECB) for corporates bodies to three months with immediate effect.The decision comes in the wake of the South-east Asian financial crisis and its effects on world markets, an official press release said here today. The reduction in the ECB period will also facilitate access for companies to foreign currency markets. Under the current guidelines for ECB, corporates are given six months to close the financial agreement taken on record. In case they are unable to do so, there is a cooling off period of six months before they can re-apply for ECB.Indo-Gulf Fertilisers from the Aditya Birla group is set to become the first Indian company to raise funds through ECB route after the South-east Asian crisis. The company will raise $50 million syndicated loans to part-fund its Rs 1,850-crore copper-smelter project. It is learnt that the syndicated loans will be raised at lessthan 200 basis points above the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (Libor).S Kumars SynfabsMUMBAI: S Kumars Synfabs has recorded a net profit of Rs 10.10 crore for the six months ended March 1998 against Rs 5.64 crore during the same period last year. The net sales rose to Rs 169.85 crore from Rs 114.55 crore. The gross profit after interest but before depreciation and taxation was at Rs 14.12 crore against Rs 8.54 crore. The earning per share (annualised) stood at Rs 8.02 against Rs 10.54.The depreciation was at Rs 3.02 crore against Rs 2.20 crore. The total expenditure was pegged at Rs 147.20 crore as compared with Rs 100.51 crore. The paid-up equity of the company stood at Rs 25.20 crore.
