Date:14/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/10/14/stories/2005101402330300.htm

Back FL Smidth hopes to settle dispute with L&T

Our Bureau

Chennai , Oct. 13

FL Smidth & Co, the Denmark-headquartered company that provides technology, equipment and plants to the cement and mineral processing industries, hopes to settle its dispute with Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) through discussions.

In June 2005, FL Smidth had accused L&T of violating the licensing agreement between the two.

FL Smidth is a leading supplier of cement production technology to the Indian cement industry and its presence was through a licensing and cooperation agreement with L&T and on its own through Fuller India Ltd. However, in November 2004 FL Smidth and L&T terminated their agreement.

In a press release issued in June, FL Smidth India said that L&T had agreed not to use FL Smidth's know-how and proprietary rights and to refrain from competing with FL Smidth for five years. When L&T announced that it had bagged an order for a cement-grinding unit in Oman, FL Smidth said it was in breach of an agreement between the two companies.

Asked about this after a press conference here on Thursday, Mr Jorgen Huno Rasmussen, Group CEO, FL Smidth & Co, hoped that an "amicable solution" would be found.

He had met L&T's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr A.M. Naik, recently and discussed the issue, Mr Rasmussen said.

In an interaction with journalists here earlier this month, Mr Naik said that the issue had been sorted out. After all, the two companies had a relationship for almost 60 years, he had said.

Mr Rasmussen said the outlook for the cement industry in India was good. FL Smidth had bagged an order to supply equipment and machinery for a 2.2-million-tonne cement plant of Binani Cement Ltd in Rajasthan.

The order was worth $40 million (about Rs 175 crore). FL Smidth, along with L&T, had helped set up Binani Cement's first plant.