Stone India Ltd Company Summary

Stone India Ltd Summary

Stone India(SIL), formerly known as Stone Platt, is part of Duncan Goenka group of companies. It manufactures various equipment for the railways like alternators, air brakes and brake regulators. Apart from this the company also manufactures colour monitors and secondary components for the defence sector.Originally the company was incorporated on Jan 15, 1931 as a private limited company and converted into a public limited company on Oct 25, 1972. SIL took over the business (Selling Agencies) of erstwhile J Stone & Company (incorporated in the UK), which carried on business at Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai & other places in India and Srilanka as a going concern. The company has established a workshop in Calcutta to manufacture various items of train lighting equipment, such as bent couplers, junction boxes, light fittings and carriage fans. Since then, the company has grown into a large organisation and manufactures, among other things, a complete range of lighting and railway oriented equipment. Its name was changed from J Stone & Co (India) to Stone-Platt Electrical (India), in 1976. It was again changed to Stone India in 1986-87.SIL before comming into the folds of Duncan Goenka group in 1990s was a subsidiary of Stone-Platt Overseas, UK, a Stone-Platt group company. The Stone-Platt group is the one which is providing technical assistance to the company for manufacturing train lighting and air-conditioning equipment. SIL had a proposal to enter into new agreements with the Stone-Platt group to manufacture submersible pumps, rotary switches and systems relays. SIL has technical collaboration agreement with Svenska Aktiebolagest Bromsregulator to manufacutre brake regulating equipment for railway rolling stock and with L F Aively, France for manufacture of pantographs for electric locomotives and electric multiple unit coaches. The technology was fully absorbed by the company. SILs railway component business contributes around 90% of its topline. It products range is wide and includes train lighting equipment(its sales & Services) and other related equipments including dynamos, switchgears and alternators, pantograph for electric locomotives and electrical multiple units, superheater elements for locomotive boilers, ball and joints, return bends and brake regulating equipment for railway rolling stocks, fractional horsepower motors, complete air-conditioning / refrigeration equipment for railway and buses, control panels, rotors and traction motors and secondary components for defence sectors.In May 1994 the company came out with a public-cum-rights issue of debentures to part-finance its brake block, computer colour monitor and rubber project and modernisation of its Taratalla works. On June 1, 1999 the company sold its rubber components manufacturing business to its subsidiary Skylark Rubber Products Ltd for Rs.36 lakhs. The company has decided to divest from its raiway components business. In this regard it has held talks with the US-based Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation Inc (WABTEC), one of the leading railway equipment suppliers. The US company has also completed due diligence exercise through KPMG. It is expected that the US company will pick up the majority stake in the divested unit and the minority stake will be held by the Duncan Goenka group. Offloading of railway business to WABTEC would leave SIL with its defence, rubber and Colour Monitor business only. The company has decided to focus on defence equipment and housing and infra-structure related products. As part of this diversification programme the company has entered into an agreement with the group company Bakelite Hylam Ltd(BHL). for acquiring its Heritage Surface Textures Division. This division of BHL manufactures surface textures which is used as a base prior to painting of buildings. The company has offloaded 49% of the stake of Pioneer Friction Ltd a JV Company to Futuris Industrial Products Pty Ltd,Australia(FIP),