Modern group's president (corporate affairs) SN Todi told The Financial Express that the order to be completed by November 1999 and the first instalment of letter of credit valued at $739,000 has already been received by Modern.

Todi said the group has no plans to sell the terry towels unit as a part of its financial restructuring plan and was, in fact, negotiating with other international buyers for bulk orders.

Todi said that talks with Westpoint were for supply of terry towels on a long term basis to cater to their need of as much as 5,000 mt of terry towels annually. ``We, however, could agree to supply only 135 mt a month due to our current order book position,'' he said.

Westpoint is considered to be one of the largest and most renowned companies in the US in the field of home furnishing and utility textile products. The terry towels will caterto the needs of department chain stores like JC Penney, Sears, Muntgomery Ward, Federated stores etc. ``The long term business relationship with the buyer would bring positive results to the performance of the company,'' Todi said.

Todi said that the recession in the textile industry had also affected Modern group, but it was making efforts to tide over the present adverse market conditions.

He said demand for products manufactured by other group companies was also improving. Modern Petrofils, a unit of Modern Syntex which is into manufacture of polyester chips, partially oriented yarn (POY) and polyester filament yarn (PFY), is in fact planning to augment the plant capacity and increase production from 52,500 tonnes to 63,000 tonnes in 1999 and ultimately to 70,000 tonnes per annum by the turn of the century, he said. The POY is witnessing a sharp increase in off-take by the consuming sector and the prices are also firming up, he said.