The Rs 1,513.42-crore Tata group company, which manufactures urea fertiliser and soda ash, may terminate its Rs 14 crore detergents business which markets the "Shudh" brand, sources said. A senior company official confirmed that the management is "looking at" shutting down the detergents business.

Informed sources state that the management of Tata Chemicals is also looking into the possibility of merging the fertiliser business with group company Rallis India.

An official spokesperson of Tata Chemicals said, "The board has asked the management to relook at the detergents business." On the sale of the cement business, the spokesperson said "no such decision has been taken but management studies are continuing on long-term marketing and viability issues."

Sources, however, affirm that the management is clearly looking out for a buyer for the cement business. Tata Chemicals' cement is marketed by the Associated Cement Companies. The cement business sales at Rs 52.52 crore in 1999-2000 were higher by 33 per cent over the previous year. The company is into the manufacture of pozzolana portland cement and its clinker production capacity stands at 3.2 lakh tonnes.

On the issue of merging or selling off the fertiliser business with Rallis India, the spokesperson said: "No such proposal has been considered by the Boards of these companies." Rallis India markets urea for Tata Chemicals.

According to sources, the management of the company has held internal discussions on the possibility of merging the fertiliser business with Rallis India.

The company, which also makes `Tata Salt', had earlier considered the possibility of shifting the salt brand to Tata Tea. However, company officials said there was no immediate plan to do so.

Moreover, the current share price of Tata Chemicals - around Rs 34 - is much below the book value of Rs 100. Investment banking sources point out that in such a scenario a company would either resort to improving the market capitalisation or break up the company to sell off each of the businesses separately. These sources feel that the latter could be true for Tata Chemicals.

In fact, at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday, shareholders expressed concern over the company's share price which has dipped below the book value. Shareholders asked the management of the company to pursue a share buyback option to prop up the value of the share.

The company recently witnessed the stepping down of its managing director Manu Seth, who served an illustrious career of 15 years with the Tata group.

Tata group insiders conjecture that differences of opinion with the management on the above restructuring issues could have resulted in Seth putting in his papers. This can be related to sentiments attached with the company, especially since the Mithapur complex in Gujarat was built right from scratch by Seth's father, the late Darbari Seth.Tata Chemicals manufactures soda ash at Mithapur and urea at Babrala in Uttar Pradesh.

Urea, with sales at Rs 783 crore, contributes over 51 per cent to Tata Chemicals' turnover. Soda ash sales at Rs 506 crore, forms about 33 per cent to the company's sales.

Tata Chemicals has announced that Prasad R Menon, who is currently the technical director and agri business sector chief at the Nagarjuna Group, will be the new managing director of the company.

The company's businesses have been under pressure with soda ash impacted by Chinese dumping, and urea being a controlled fertiliser suffering from a reduction in the retention price fixed by the Government.

Tata Chemicals reported a 35 per cent drop in net profit in the fiscal 1999-2000 to Rs 117.3 crore from Rs 182 crore last year. Sales increased marginally to Rs 1,521 crore from Rs 1,464 crore during the year.