FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 2011
The Directors submit their Report for the financial year ended 31st
March, 2011.
Financial Performance
Your Company recorded an income of Rs.146.07 crores (previous year
Rs.108.16 crores) registering a 35% growth over last year. Pre-tax
profits increased by 49% to Rs.25.35 crores while Post-tax profits at
Rs.16.71 crores registered a growth of 49%. Your Company earned Rs.9.35
crores in foreign exchange and utilised foreign exchange of Rs.0.04
crores. Details of foreign exchange earnings and outgo are provided in
Schedule 18 to the Accounts. Considering the nature of business of your
Company, no comment is required on conservation of energy and
technology absorptions.
Your Directors are pleased to recommend a dividend of Rs.3.80 per
Equity Share of Rs.10/- each for the year ended 31st March, 2011,
involving a cash outflow of Rs.3.53 crores including Dividend
Distribution Tax of Rs.0.49 crores. Your Board further recommends a
transfer to the General Reserve of Rs.1.67 crores (previous year
Rs.1.13 crores). Consequently, your Board recommends leaving an
unappropriated balance in Profit & Loss Account of Rs.59 crores
(previous year Rs.47.49 crores).
Business Operations
Despite a high rate of inflation, the economy showed a healthy GDP
growth of 8.5%. This was encouraging in view of the slow recovery of
global markets resulting in a weakened Dollar and Euro. Many of the
source markets continue to face economic crises.
The aggressive competitive posture and stringent fiscal discipline
adopted by your Company over the last two years paid off through the
acquisition of significant new business as well as improved margins.
Our Car Rental business performed extremely well during the year under
review. The process of fleet modernisation continued apace.
In the MICE segment last year''s progressive trend was carried forward
and this vertical of your Company showed encouraging growth in net
income over the previous year. Your Company was appointed as the
Official Travel Agent for nine conferences during the year. The segment
of outbound corporate incentives also developed satisfactorily with
your Company sending as many as 5,000 persons on incentive trips to
foreign countries during the year under review.
Work on the project to develop an integrated IT platform for your
Company''s various verticals has proceeded satisfactorily as planned and
will proceed to the next phase.
Awards & Recognition
Your Company received Performance Excellence awards from Lufthansa
German Airlines, Hahn Air, Thai Airways International and Go Air.
Human Resource Development
Your Company continued to nurture and retain talent considering it a
vital ingredient for success. The impressive results shown by your
Company are a direct result of the sincere and concerted efforts of all
your Company''s employees and your Directors place on record their
sincere appreciation of these efforts during the year under review.
Directors
In accordance with the provisions of Article 143 of the Articles of
Association of the Company, Mr Nakul Anand, Mr Anil Rajput and Mr H P
Ranina will retire by rotation at the ensuing Annual General Meeting of
your Company and being eligible, offer themselves for re-appointment.
Particulars of Employees
None of the employees fall under the purview of the provisions of
Section 217(2A) of the Companies Act, 1956, read with the Companies
(Particulars of Employees) Rules, 1975.
Auditors
The Auditors, Messrs S R Batliboi & Associates, retire at the ensuing
Annual General Meeting and being eligible, offer themselves for
re-appointment.
Other Information
The certificate of the Auditors, Messrs S R Batliboi & Associates
confirming compliance of conditions of Corporate Governance as
stipulated under Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement with the Stock
Exchanges in India, is annexed.
The Audit Committee of the Company reviewed the financial statements
for the year under review at its meeting held on 2nd May, 2011 and
recommended them for the approval of the Board of Directors.
Directors Responsibility Statement
As required under Section 217 (2AA) of the Companies Act, 1956, your
Directors confirm having :
(i) followed in the preparation of the Annual Accounts the applicable
Accounting Standards along with proper explanations relating to
material departures, if any;
(ii) selected such accounting policies and applied them consistently
and made judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent so as
to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company at
the end of the financial year and of the profit of the Company for that
period;
(iii) taken proper and sufficient care 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; and
(iv) prepared the Annual Accounts on a going concern basis.
Future Prospects
The Indian economy is expected to continue showing a growth of about 8%
during 2011-12.
Domestic air travel has shown an 18.7% growth during the calendar year
2010. In anticipation of this growing trend, various Indian carriers
have recently ordered a total of 48 new aircraft. It has been estimated
that by 2014, domestic airline passengers in India should grow to 69
million from the current level of about 50 million annually.
Outbound traffic from India also continues to show a healthy growth
with over 12 million Indians travelling abroad during the year under
review. This presents an area of opportunity to your Company.
The significant number of new corporate clients added during the year
should start generating healthy turnover volumes during the coming
months.
Your Company has recently become a member of the worldwide Global Star
Travel Management network, which will enable it to extend its reach
globally and not only render better service to outbound clients but
also enable effective servicing of multinational / global clients as
per global standards.
Global Star customers receive consistent service wherever they travel,
because partners are bound by a common code of conduct, technology
standards, global account management and service level agreements.
Your Company has been appointed as the Official Travel Partner and
Professional Conference Organiser in India by several important
international conference organisers.These linkages are expected to
generate continuing business during the coming years and have already
started producing encouraging results.
The recent unprecedented natural disaster in Japan has dented what was
for India an important source of both leisure and corporate business.
Further, the possible impact of the economic crises in Spain, Greece,
Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Iceland on the rest of Europe and the
Eurozone necessiates close watching.
During the year, considerable progress has been made in completing the
groundwork for the proposed sophisticated IT based integrated platform.
During 2011-12 your Company shall be putting these systems in place and
begin making them operational. Once implemented, this platform should
go a long way in making your Company contemporary, customer-focussed
and competitive and radically transform the manner in which it conducts
its business.
On behalf of the Board
Jehangir J Ghadiali S C Sekhar
Managing Director Director
Place : New Delhi
Dated : 2nd May, 2011
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