Ladies & Gentlemen,
Good afternoon !
It gives me immense pleasure to warmly welcome each and everyone of you to this Seventieth Annual General Meeting of your Company.
Your Company has completed seventy long years in the service of the nation transforming itself from a piping and pipework engineering Company to a multi-disciplinary engineering and construction Company with a trusted name in the industry. For this, we must, at the very outset, express our gratitude to our shareholders & stakeholders who have remained with the Company extending their unstinted support to its growth & development. Together we have stood the test of time and made S&L a Rs.100 crore plus Company, bringing it now to the threshold of even further growth.

1) Performance Review
I am pleased to highlight the operational and financial performance of S&L during 2007-08.

• The Company achieved a turn-over of Rs.111 crores consolidating its position as a Rs.100 crore plus Company for the fourth successive year. Though there was some shortfall vis-a-vis the previous year’s turn-over mainly due to delay in availability of work-fronts in TATA Steel Jamshedpur and Bongaigaon Refinery sites, it was still the second highest turn-over ever achieved.
• Profit before tax was Rs.5.32 crores in line with the sales turn-over.
• The earning per share went up from Rs.11.91 in 2006-07 to Rs.12.26 in 2007-08.
• The order booking position reached an all time high of Rs.171 crores at the end of the financial year. All jobs earned during this period were direct contracts, most of which will be executed this year unlike in the last financial year when we had to execute several contracts as sub-contractors with very thin margins to get ourselves technically qualified for future direct jobs in various sectors.
• The increasing trend in order bookings is expected to continue in 2008-09. In fact your Company is L1 in the Dolo & Lime Kiln projects of SAIL Durgapur and Bokaro worth about Rs 72 crores and Rs.175 crores respectively which are the biggest ever bids by the Company. S&L is also L1 at Rs.29 crores in the bid for mechanical works for CDU/VDU revamp project of Chennai Refinery.
• After my address, I shall request Shri Kalyan Dasgupta, Financial Controller to make a presentation on the financials of 2007-08 to facilitate a better understanding of our financial performance.

2) Challenges and opportunities in Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Business

Indian economy is now growing at the rate of over 8% and this growth is expected to be more or less sustained in spite of high inflation. EPC opportunities in the Hydrocarbon, Metal, Steel, Power and Chemical would be enormous. To effectively tap the opportunities of growth profitability, S&L plans to, interalia, restructure and continuously strengthen its organization, focus on aggressive Business Development in the targeted sectors and further enhance design and engineering as well as project management capabilities, strengthen the acquisition and management of construction equipments, continuously improve cost competitiveness through significant upgradation of procurement and contract management process and ERP implementation. S&L endeavours to obtain the best benefits of contemporary technology through tie-ups with technology leaders as has been done to develop capabilities in areas such as Kilns, Coke Dry Quenching, Coke-oven by-product plants, Heavy lifts etc.

3) Areas of Concern

• High level of debtors which is inherent in the contracting nature of busines.
• Pressure on our margin’s due to escalation in the inflation rate resulting in rising cost of inputs.
• Recruiting and retaining quality man-power.

I shall request Shri Nimai Mitra, Senior President to make a short presentation on S&L’s Strategic Business Plan to facilitate better appreciation of the challenges and our action plan.

4) Current year’s performance

The financial results of the Company for the quarter ended 30th June 2008 which has been subjected to limited review by the Auditors were approved by the Board at its meeting held yesterday.

For the first quarter of 2008-09, S&L reported a profit before tax of Rs. 1.29 crores, which is an increaseof 12% over the corresponding quarter of previous year. Similarly the turn-over increased by 10% from Rs. 25.07crores to Rs. 27.58 crores.

5) Human Resources

S&L is proud to have a successful industrial relations philosophy which focuses on finding solutions through dialogue in a spirit of open work culture and constructive team work. This has enabled us to maintain a cordial and peaceful work environment throughout.

In addition to a core group of experienced professionals who have remained with the organization for decades, fresh professionals in various disciplines were also inducted. For enhancement of professional capabilities, employees were exposed to various training programme both in-house organized by IOT and S&L as well as by reputed training institutions. In line with the current business requirements, employees were exposed to various programmes on Project & Construction Management, Safety, Quality, Cost Control etc.

The manpower strength has been reduced from a total of 406 as on 1-6-2007 to 358 as on 1-6-2008 through re-structuring and re-deployment in the KDP/JJP Works.

6) Corporate governance

We are committed to ensuring that our Corporate governance standards, ethics and values are of the highest order to meet the expectations of all our stakeholders.

7) Health Safety and Environment

We are committed to the highest standards of health, safety and environment. Apart from developing our own HSE team we continue to receive the active support from HSE professionals of IOT.

8) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to place on record grateful thanks to my colleagues in the S&L team including all Senior Management members as well as the Office bearers of the Unions for their positive attitude, commitment and high performance levels which has enabled the Company to establish itself as a Rs.100 crores plus Company for the fourth successive year. I am confident that their continued whole-hearted, active and professional efforts would ensure S&L achieving further profitable growth.

My warmest thanks to our customers, banks and other authorities whose continued support, positive response and cooperation would be critical for our success.

I also take the opportunity to thank the members of the Board of S&L for their enlightened guidance and active support.

Dear shareholders – we are indebted to you for your kind support and patronage for over seven decades and we will continue to depend on your goodwill, trust and confidence on our efforts to take S&L to greater heights in the decades to come.