Date:10/12/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/12/10/stories/2005121000550700.htm

Back Vijayanand Roadlines to invest Rs 400 cr for expansion

K. Giriprakash

Bangalore , Dec. 9

TRANSPORT operator Vijayanand Roadlines plans to invest around Rs 400 crore to expand its operations while another Rs 200 crore will be invested in its newspaper business during the next two years.

Vijayanand Roadlines Ltd (VRL) plans to float an airline and it will be taken up once the transport and newspaper businesses are consolidated, its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Vijay Sankeshwar, told Business Line.

Mr Sankeshwar said VRL will invest over Rs 200 crore to buy 400 more trucks and buses and an equal amount in setting up 10 hubs and warehouses across the country. "For each of these hubs we need to acquire over 20 acres," Mr Sankeshwar said. He said during the next three years, VRL will add 2,000 more vehicles to its fleet. Currently, it has around 1,800 vehicles including 220 buses.Mr Sankeshwar said Vijayanand Printers Ltd (VPL), another company of the promoters, plans to invest around Rs 200 crore in its newspaper business during 2007. He said the combined turnover of both the companies is expected to be around Rs 360 crore this fiscal, posting an increase of around 29 per cent over last fiscal. "We should be a Rs 1,000-crore turnover company in three years," Mr Sankeshwar said. He said VRL was in talks with banks and some non-banking financial institutions to raise funds for expansion.

Newspaper business: VPL is already firming up plans to expand its newspaper business. It plans to launch newspapers in Maharashtra and Goa shortly and may also launch an edition in Delhi. Its Kannada newspaper, Vijaya Karnataka sells around 5.8 lakh copies daily making it the leading language newspaper in Karnataka while its English newspaper, Vijaya Times sells around 2 lakh copies daily and is the third largest in the State. The company also has another Kannada newspaper, Usha Kiran, which sells around 80,000 copies daily.

Mr Sankeshwar said VPL earns around Rs 7 crore in advertisement revenues every month from all the three newspapers with Vijaya Karnataka alone contributing Rs 7 crore. VPL suffers around Rs 1 crore loss every month from its newspaper business. During the current fiscal, VPL expects to post losses of around Rs 10 crore. "We expect to start making profits from May next year," Mr Sankeshwar said. He said once the newspaper business starts making profits, Vijayanand Roadlines, its transport company, will stop funding it. VRL has so far invested up to Rs 60 crore in VPL.