Hindalco's equity stake includes a 54.6 per cent holding divested by Alcan Aluminium of Canada and an additional 20 per cent that the Birlas picked up via an open offer for Rs 1,008 crore. The open offer has been over-subscribed to 31 per cent. With Hindalco and Indal now under one umbrella, and considering the takeover of the public sector Balco, the group hopes to emerge as one of the top ten aluminium companies in the world.

For the 1999-2000 fiscal, Hindalco reported an operating profit of Rs 940 crore and a net profit of Rs 612 crore on a sales turnover of Rs 2,031 crore. Indal reported an operating profit of Rs 109 crore, a net of Rs 84 crore and turnover of Rs 1,141 crore. Kumar Mangalam Birla is now the chairman of Indal's board, and Hindalco's president Askaran Agarwala is the vice-chairman. Almost half of Indal's earlier board has been retained. NJ Javery, PK Choksey, AL Murlidhar and NK Chowdhary will continue as directors. The financial institution nominee SC Jain will also continue as a board member. Three directors have been nominated from the Aditya Birla group. They are - SK Tamotia, who has taken over as the new chief executive officer of Indal, and will now be based in Calcutta, BL Shah and Santrupt Mishra.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Askaran Agarwala said Indal will operate as a separate and independent company but will also function as a member of the AV Birla group.

However, there will be a synergy of operations between Indal and Hindalco. "Hindalco's access to competitive cost metal and Indal's strengths in downstream semifabricated product markets coupled with world class technology, provide excellent opportunities for synergy and ensure competitive advantage for future growth," Agarwala said.

"With the combined strength of Hindalco and Indal, our aim is to catapult our aluminium business to the top of the league, first in South-East Asia and a few years down the line, in the international markets. We hope to join the ranks of the best ten players globally. Today, collectively, this combine commands the highest metal capacity in the entire South-East Asian belt," he added.

The company he said, had therefore taken up a Rs 1,800-crore expansion plan which will be implemented in phases over the next 33 months. It would include the expansion of the aluminium smelter capacity from the current 242,000 tonne per annum (tpa) to 342,000 tpa, the alumina capacity from 450,000 tpa to 660,000t pa, and the power generation capacity from 575mw to 725mw by setting up two 75mw units at the company's Renusagar power plant. uIt also has a 37mw co-generation unit at Renukoot.

For value-added products, Indal's idle capacities would be used. Birla said that he did not rule out the acquisition of another company if this aided the combine's plans to become a global player. Asked whether the group is keen to take over Balco, he said, "We are open to such opportunities."