Dear Members and Shareholders,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to this 31st Annual General Meeting of the company. The report of the Directors and the audited results for the year ended March 31, 2008 are already with you. I am sure; you have had the opportunity to peruse them.
I consider it my privilege to be addressing this gathering and discussing the highlights of Soma’s performance.
As you would observe it was a year of progress in all the sectors we operate in. we continue to deliver beyond our client’s expectations and engage in long term relationships enabling planned growth for years to come.
Financial Performance
This year 2007-08 was the year of scaling new heights and expanding into new frontiers,
Soma has achieved a turnover of Rs. 1744 cr a growth of over 57% on previous year.
The PAT has grown by 71% to Rs.122.81 Cr. from Rs.71.89 Cr. in the previous year.
Many strategic initiatives have been taken to put us in the top league of the infrastructure companies.
Organizational Change
In pursuit of business excellence, a comprehensive long-range plan has been drafted, which will be used as a guide to keep us prepared for future challenges and achieve our business growth goals. This also includes reorganizing our operations into sectors and divisions, identification of growth areas, and implementation of innovative techniques for productivity improvement, and enhancement of overall operational efficiency.
The high potential of Project Execution within the company combined with an almost new asset base of plant and machinery offers tremendous opportunity to unlock value. Management responses to these have been the creation of a Rock Processing Division. Ready Mix Division, Piling Division. Precast Division. Highway Operation & Maintenance Division and organizing the projects into Transportation, Water Resources, Hydro Power, Urban Infrastructure & Buildings. With this move, we would be in a position to transform ourselves and to be viewed as not only a general contracting firm, but also a large specialist turnkey solution provider and thus make a greater contribution to the infrastructure development programmes in the country.
Corporate Identity
As we enter into new areas of business with a higher customer centric approach and focus, a need was felt to relook at our corporate identity and refresh our vision & mission. A reputed branding consultant has been engaged to work on re-defining the corporate identity. The exercise involves addressing a broad spectrum of our stakeholders and creating the right perception of us. The current year will see the launch of our new corporate identity largely as an outcome of our stakeholder’s perceptions.
Organization Development
Acknowledging that the management of human resources is an integral part of organizational competitiveness and business success, the company has taken measures towards competence development of people at all levels, in line with the present and future organizational needs. Plans have been worked out to enhance employees’ satisfaction by addressing key factors related to compensation, ambience, training, recognition and reward.
Concomitant with this development agenda is the continuous strengthening of our capabilities through planned interventions. A renowned Malaysian Consulting firm has been engaged to work on organization development issues, addressing organization structure, development of leadership, aligning compensation to market forces and other HR systems in general.
Diversification
Looking beyond the current scenarios and growing at a rate better than the industry, Soma is aggressively seeking Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). PPP’s are increasingly becoming the preferred mode for construction and operation of infrastructure services such as highways, airports, ports etc., both in developed and developing countries. PPPs offer significant advantages in terms of attracting private capital in creation of public infrastructure as well as in improving efficiencies in the provision of services to users.
PPPs can be undertaken through a range of alternatives such as BOT, BOOT etc. They enable governments to transfer construction and commercial risks to the private sector which is best suited to manage them. However, considerable work is needed to create an enabling environment which should not only attract private investment but must also be seen to be in the public interest and this is best assured if the process is seen to provide services at reasonable cost and in a transparent manner.
Some of the key projects taken up by Soma through PPP are
1. Six Laning of Panipat – Jalandhar section of NH-1 from Km. 96.00 to Km. 387.10 (Length – 291.10 km) in the State of Haryana/Punjab to be executed as BOT(Toll) on DBFO pattern under NHDP Phase – V” of National Highways Authority of India.
2. Sissiri Multi Purpose Project, Arunachal Pradesh consisting of 204 m high Concrete Dam with 5 bays of 15 m wide provided with Radial Gates. A 6 m dia 1 Km long Diversion Tunnel diverts water during construction. Total length of the Dam is 511 m including left and right Non-Overflow Blocks. 3 Nos. Pressure Shafts / Penstocks lead to Surface Power House having 3 units of 74 MW on BOT Basis.
3. Development of Commercial Zone at Musheerabad, Hyderabad for Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation on BOT Basis.
4. Development of an Integrated Textile Special Economic Zone, Kagal, Kolhapur, Maharashtra of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, Govt. of Maharashtra on BOT Basis.
5. Development of Commercial Centre at Bhains Than, Ramsagar Para Ward, Raipur for Raipur Municipal Corporation.
Soma along with its associate companies is seeking to broaden our operations beyond traditional domains. The high potential of realty offers opportunities as never before. An aggressive plan is being shaped to benefit from these opportunities and will see the launch of multiple projects within the current year.
Globalization
Globalization breaks the traditional barriers of national boundaries and allows the most competitive value addition, thus rewarding and enhancing competitiveness. Soma is actively evaluating potential of developing countries viz., Laos PDR, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Russia etc., and is keen to establish itself as a global player. In this direction, a new business development office will become operational in Malaysia in this year.
Thank you all.
