KANORIA CHEMICALS-Expansion Programme

collaboration agreement with Bajaj Auto for the manufacture of 'Priya' and 'Bajaj- Super' range of scooters, Maharashtra Scooters has performed well in 1993-94, notching up a 9.78 per cent rise in net profit on a 11.7 per cent rise in net sales. The improvement in the company's bottomline was mainly due to a sharp fall in interest charges which in turn can be partly attributed to the reduction in debtors from 10.6 per cent of net sales to 3.3 per cent. Net profit would have been even higher but for the rise in depreciation {11 per cent) and tax provision(23 percent). Encouraged by its performance the company declared a 30 per cent dividend, compared to the previous year's 25 per cent. Debt-equity ratio is very low compared with the industry average (95 per cent). While the sales to total asset ratio (80 percent) is comparable with the industry average (86 per cent), the sales to gross fixed assets ratio (1,347 per cent) is much higher than the industry average (129 per cent). Growth of inventory has shown sharp fluctuations in the past three years, being 70 per cent in 1991-92, 5 per cent in 1992-93 and 35 per cent in 1993-94. Remuneration to employees has steadily come down in the past three years from 31 per cent in 1991 -92 to 27 per cent Despite recessionary trends in the two-