Announcing this during the annual general meeting of the company, chairman and managing director MV Murugappan said that the sale was in line with the company's decision to sell the monolithic unit as it did not form part of core competencies. The sale was made to Vesuvius India Ltd which was in this particular line of business. The sale included the technology transfer Cumi had sourced from abroad.

Cumi is also looking to sell or get a joint venture partner for its electrocast refractories unit at Palakkad. While no suitable proposal has emerged, Cumi is keeping its options open.

The company is also scouting for appropriate acquisitions abroad for economies of scale.

The shareholders also approved of share buyback not exceeding 25 per cent of the paid-up share capital (in value Rs 31.83 crore). The company would buy back a maximum of 27,67,800 equity shares at a price of Rs 115 per share, a premium of 32 per cent over the market price for the period of 26 weeks ended June 23, 2000. The book value is Rs 105.

While the company had not done very well last year, (particularly the refractories) the first quarter in the current year seems to show a better trend. Sales of bonded abrasives grew by 20 per cent and coated by 15 per cent. Overall, sales grew by 13 per cent to Rs 60.51 crore in the quarter ended June 30 2000, compared to sales of Rs 53.43 crore in the previous corresponding quarter. The profit before tax stood at Rs 4.64 crore (Rs 6.59 crore). Though this appears lower, Murugappa explained that a change in inventory valuation was made in line with AS2 standards. This in effect saw an addition of Rs 2.92 crore to the net profit last year. ``On a like to like basis we have done better,'' he said.

The net stood at Rs 3.15 crore lower by 30 per cent compared to Rs 4.5 crore in the corresponding period last year.