DIRECTORS REPORT TO THE SHARE HOLDERS
The Directors have great pleasure in presenting to you “19th Annual
Report” of your Company along with the Audited Accounts for the year
ended 31st March 2011.
1. FINANCIAL RESULTS:
The Financial Results for the year ended 31 st March 2011 are furnished
below:
(Rs. In Lakhs)
Particulars 2009-10 2010-11
Operating Income 334.38 406.49
Other Income 7.28 14.45
Profit before Depreciation & Tax 116.71 138.32
Depreciation 56.70 59.36
Cash Profit 62.77 69.47
During the year under review your company has recorded a 21.47% growth
in its gross operating income. However the same was offset by increase
in ''marketing overheads''. The growth in the business was possible with
steps initiated by the Board members to enter new markets.
2. SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES:
During the year under review the Subsidiary Companies incorporated were
not able to record any progress since activities undertaken are in the
initial phase. However efforts are being made to utilize the
subsidiaries if necessary by associating with other business partners
(and also by effecting the required changes in the objects as well as
the names) for the new proposals by the boards as mentioned in the
later paragraphs of the ''Management''s Perception''.
3. DIVIDEND:
The Directors have taken a decision not to recommend any dividend for
the year 2010-11, mainly with intention of boosting up company owned
funds. While taking such decision the Directors have taken into account
to strengthen Financials of the company by retaining earned profits.
4. PUBLIC DEPOSITS:
During the year under review the company has not accepted any ''public
deposit'' as in defined in provision of Section 58A of the Companies
Act, 1956 read with Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Rules 1975 as
amended from time to time. There are no outstanding unclaimed deposits
as on 31st March 2011.
5. MANAGEMENT''S PERCEPTION:
PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS - AN OVERVIEW
Cost Enhancement of the Project and the Delay in obtaining the required
additional funds:
The company raised funds in 2006 by way of rights issue, for the
purpose of expansion including updating the medical equipment by way of
replacing the obsolete and old medical equipment with the new ones. Due
to the time taken for the process involved, newer models of diagnostic
equipment have in the mean time been introduced into the market and the
level of the originally envisaged sophistication for updating has gone
up and so also the cost. In addition, the company opted to establish a
Clinical Research Unit along with the needed diagnostic equipment in
Hyderabad as per the ''business plan'' mentioned in the ''Rights Issue
prospectous'' of the company. For this your company had to approach the
banks for the additional funds needed to meet the enhanced cost
requirements. Your company has got the loan sanctioned, but due to the
extraordinary delay in the bank at various stages of processing,
sanction as well as the disbursement, the whole process got delayed too
much. This unexpected extraordinary delay for the company to go ahead
with its updating & expansion plans, saw many other new similar centres
with similar sophisticated equipment cropping up in the vicinity of the
unit during this period. Finally after the installation of the updated
new equipment, due to the heavy competition created because of the
mushrooming of the diagnostic centres during this delay period, the
marketing expenditure increased out of proportion and some undue sops
and price discounts had to be extended to most of the supporters and
service providers and also the private/Government organizations which
are in tie up with the company for utilizing the diagnostic services.
Thus, in spite of substantial increase in the income of the company
over the past 6 years, the profits are not reflected proportionately.
Global Recession and Delay in materialization of import of equipment,
and unenvisaged additional Interest Burden:
In addition, the supply and import of some sophisticated high end
equipment got extraordinarily delayed as a consequence of the then
global recession in its peak and other external factors affecting the
import. This resulted in the company incurring huge interest burden
(not provided for in the scheduled budget) during the period between
ordering the equipment by way of payment and the installation and
commencement of commercial operations of various medical equipments
purchased. This also resulted in different equipments getting installed
at different time intervals. The net effect was that, the company
suffered huge amounts of interest burden (unprovided for and
unexpected) as well as the need for the regular organizational
maintenance, even while the revenues suffered heavily due to the non
commencement of many new equipments as per schedule. As such the
company suffered severely in many ways in terms of revenue streams –
which had a consequential bearing on the profitability of the company.
Need for more comprehensiveness:
Due to delay in the implementation of the project and installation of
various equipments at different times, the supporters/service providers
had confused knowledge about the details of equipments available and
the total services provided. A lot of marketing expenditure had to be
spent for awareness creation on the services provided in the centre
from time to time.
The Present Problem of stand alone Diagnostic Centres:
It is understood from the market forces that a stand alone Diagnostic
business model is day by day becoming more difficult to sustain. This
business is mostly dependant on referrals from Nursing homes and
General Practitioners. Today with large (corporate) hospitals coming
with their own inhouse diagnostic facilities with high investment and
internal captive clients, it has hit the stand alone diagnostic
business. In addition to this, the introduction of ''Arogyasri'' free
health scheme to poor patients by the govt. in association with big &
corporate hospitals, prompted them to have in-house diagnostic
facilities of their own. Because of this, referrals to stand alone
diagnostic centres from big hospitals decreased drastically and as a
consequence, the competition becasue heavy and the marketing expenses
involved shot up beyond the permissible levels. As a net effect the
margins for most of the diagnostic procedures are substantially
decreased.
Withdrawal of the loan sanctioned by the bank for the Hyderabad Unit
and the consequent effects on the company:
When the preliminary operational efforts and activities for
establishing & commencing the Hyderabad unit were in full swing in
2009, the bank has abruptly issued a letter on 07.08.2009 intimating
the withdrawal of the loan for the Hyderabad Unit - citing delay in the
implementation as the reason. However, it was clearly explained to the
bank about the justified reasons for the delay in implementation of the
Hyderabad Unit. Whereas the global financial recession which was at its
peak in 2008-09 casued the withdrawal/reduction of the outsourcing of
the clinical trials from the west, also resulted in delayed approval
and implementation of the MOUs entered into bey the Company with
foreign life sciences companies. The company by then already spent the
required amounts for the preliminary and preoperative works and also a
substantial amount among others for the rennovation & modification of
the leased out huge premises for this purpose. Because of this, the
substantial expenditure spent on the Hyderabad Unit till then become
ineffective and redundant. Thus while we were on the verge of making
things happen even in that difficult scenario, the bank has suddenly
issued the loan withdrawal letter, resulting in loss of time and
efforts and also the amount already spent on the Hyderabad unit till
then. This also had a bearing on the subsequent financial resilience of
the company and adversely impacted the financials and growth of the
company. In addition, because of this, the company also suffered huge
potential loss in terms of ''to have obtained'' revenues and
profitability through the unit as originally envisaged by the board and
management.
Concerted Management Efforts:
The Revenues increased year-by-year (i.e, for FY 2005-06-Rs.213.43
lakhs, FY 2006-07-Rs.246.99 lakhs, FY 2007-08-Rs.260.33 lakhs, FY
2008-09-Rs.270.23 lakhs, FY 2009-10-Rs.334.38 lakhs and FY 2010-
11-Rs.406.49 lakhs). Inspite of the unit performing exceedingly well in
terms of increased revenues year-by- year, it has little profit margins
left for the prompt servicing of loans every month for the reasons
mentioned in the above paragraphs in detail. However, as a result of
the focussed efforts of the management, the performance and revenues of
the Company during the completed year also did improve but with higher
marketing expenses. With its concerted efforts, the management has been
paying the bank loans almost regularly, though with some strain on the
finances of the company.
STEPS PROPOSED BY THE BOARD FOR FUTURE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND
ENHANCED PROFITABILITY
To accomplish the Comprehensiveness of Diagnostic Services:
The board proposes to take every step needed to further improve the
operational revenues by making the unit a Specialised Diagnostic
Centre. The provision of high end specialised diagnostic sophisticated
equipment will not normally be available in almost all the hospitals
and hence they would approach the spicality diagnostic centres with
those faciilties. This would result in increasing the operational
profit margins of your company. To achieve this objective, the company
proposes to complete the comprehensiveness of the diagnostic services
by updating the existing clinical laboratory equipment and also
introduce some of the latest and more sophisticated laboratory
equipment for operating the clinical laboratory services on an enhanced
scale including Biochemical, Microbiological, Immunological,
Pathological, Molecular diagnostics etc. As it is a well known fact in
the industry that the profits margins for specialised clinical
laboratory services are sufficiently high, taking the necessary steps
in this direction will enhance the profitability of the company
suitably.
Completion of the comprehensiveness of the existing imaging services of
the company by also adding the remaining required services like
mammography, high end X-ray etc., will add to the completeness and also
enhance the profitability of the services by way of making all the
imaging services under one roof.
Association with others for expanding the operational base:
The company is also contemplating to expand its operational base by
associating with similar centres in new areas especially in potential
places in the region and also by investing/making advance deposits or
make financial commitments/transactions in any suitable manner with
those organisations, if necessary, in return for getting the benefits
like outsourcing of operations etc., expected to be beneficial to our
company. The business potential and the local contacts of the parties
to be associated with, will also be considered while finalizing the
associations.
Establishing ''Cash Green'' Projects – Creating separate Business Units
for Medical & Non Medical Projects:
To further enhance the profitability, your company is now making
efforts towards diversifying its activities to more profitable
activities like pyrolysis plants and other ''cash green'' activities. The
Board is now working out a detailed plan for this purpose. The Board is
actively considering not only taking-up non medical project/s, but also
separating the business units of medical and non medical projects so
that the medical operations could be hived off or conducted in
association with like minded companies/parties or a portion of services
can be outsourced for the company or associations in any flexible
manner as and when thought and decided fit to be advantageous to the
company.
6. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY, TECHNOLOGY, ABSORPTION & FOREIGN EXCHANGE
EARNINGS AND OUT GO: The required information as per Sec.217 (1) (e) of
the Companies Act 1956 is provided hereunder:
A : CONSERVATION OF ENERGY:
The Company has taken necessary steps to conserve the energy
utilization during the year under review.
B. TECHNOLOGY ABSORPTION:
1. Research and Development (R&D) NIL
2. Technology absorption, adoption and innovation NIL
C. FOREIGN EXCHANGE EARNINGS AND OUT GO:
Foreign Exchange Earnings NIL
Foreign Exchange Outgo NIL
7. INTERNAL CONTROL AND ITS ADEQUACY:
The Board is committed to ensure that the Company''s ''internal control''
system remains effective and efficient in areas such as operations and
Security. For this purpose proper planning and effective conduct of the
''internal audit'' is given top-most attention.
8. DIRECTORS'' RESPONSIBILITY:
To best of their knowledge and belief and on the basis of information
furnished to them the Directors make following statement, which is
required to be made in terms of Section 217 (2AA) of the Companies Act,
1956:
(i) While preparing Annual Accounts, the applicable accounting
standards have been followed along with proper explanations
(ii) Appropriate accounting policies have been selected and applied
consistently and have made judgments and estimates that are reasonable
and prudent so as to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs
of the company as at March 31, 2011 and of the profits of the company
for the year ended on that date.
(iii) Proper and sufficient care has been taken for the maintenance of
adequate accounting records in accordance with the provisions of the
Companies Act, 1956 for safeguarding the assets of the company and for
preventing and detecting fraud and other irregularities.
(iv) The Annual Accounts of the Company have been prepared on basis of
a ''going concern''.
9. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE:
a) A note on Management Discussion and Analysis of Report is enclosed.
b) As per clause 49 of the Listing Agreement with the Stock Exchanges,
a separate section on Corporate Governance Practices followed by the
Company together with a certificate obtained from the auditors of the
Company is set out in Annexure, forming part of this report.
10. PARTICULARS OF EMPLOYEES:
During the year under review, no employee of the company was in receipt
of remuneration for the whole year which in the aggregate was
Rs.60,00,000/- or more per annum nor was any employee in receipt of
remuneration Rs.5,00,000/- or more per month for the any part of the
year in accordance with the provisions of Section 217(2A) of the
Companies Act, 1956, read with the Companies (Particulars of Employees)
Rules, 1975 as amended.
During the year under review, industrial relations of the company
continued to be cordial and peaceful.
11. DIRECTORS:
In accordance with requirements of the Companies Act, 1956 and Articles
of Association of the Company, Mr. Narendra Seena Karkera retires by
rotation. He however is eligible for reappointment. The board has
therefore recommended his reappointment.
12. AUDITORS:
M/S Pinnamaneni & Co, Chartered Accountants, the Company''s auditors
term office will conclude with this Annual General Meeting. They have
expressed willingness to accept the assignment for a further period on
one more year. They have also confirmed their eligibility for such an
appointment under Section 224(1B) of the Companies Act, 1956.The Board
recommends firms re-appointment as Company''s auditors.
13. LISTING AT STOCK EXCHANGES:
The Equity Shares of the Company are listed on Bombay Stock Exchange
Limited, Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers, Dalal Street, Mumbai - 400 001.
The listing fees to the Exchange have been paid up to date.
14. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Your Directors thank and appreciate all the executives, staff, Bankers,
Customers and Workers of the Company for their dedicated services.
//By Order of the Board//
For DOLPHIN MEDICAL SERVICES LIMITED
Sd/- Sd/-
Dr. G.V. MOHAN PRASAD Dr. M. LAKSHMI SUDHA
MANAGING DIRECTOR WHOLE TIME DIRECTOR
Place Vijayawada,
Date 14.08.2011.
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