Govt invites bids for 74 pc stake in HTL

Interested parties would have to submit their bids by August 1 with the latest audited annual report and a company profile describing their business and operations, officials added. Incorporated in 1960, HTL is a government enterprise under the Department of Telecommunications and is a growth-oriented company in the field of convergent communications.

HTL has been a profit-making and consistently dividend paying company with an equity base of Rs 15 crore. In 1999-2000, it notched a turnover of Rs 463 crore (Rs 359.50 crore in 1998-99) and profit before tax stood at Rs 21 crore (Rs 8.54 crore).

Its net worth as on March 31, 2000 stood at Rs 56.20 crore with a working capital of Rs 74 crore.

The main manufacturing facility of HTL is located at Guindy in Chennai on a plot of 52 acres at prime location with substantial scope for expansion. It has a supplementary facility on a plot of 15 acres of Hosur industrial area, which is a backward area about 30 km from Bangalore eligible for tax benefits.

The current lines of business of HTL include manufacture of various sizes of digital electronic telephone exchange equipment for rural and urban network with features and facilities for ISDN and intelligent network, main distribution frames, transmission systems and data communication products.

The company had been the system integrator of Tamilnadu National internet backbones and the managed leased data network projects of department of telecom services. It was also engaged in providing turn-key solutions such as online trading network for Bombay Stock Exchange.