Asian Paints (India) Ltd is planning to turnaround its loss making international units and expects the overseas business to contribute over 21 per cent of the consolidated revenue in fiscal 2003-04.

The company would focus on turning around five of its loss making units and on improving the performance of profitable units by maximising efficiency and supply chain and better working capital management, Ashwin Choksi, executive chairman, Asian Paints, said at the annual general meeting in Mumbai on Friday.

The emerging markets offer significant growth opportunities, he said adding, the company, through its subsidiaries has 23 manufacturing facilities in 22 countries.

The company sources said the units in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Oman and Australia were loss making.

The international operations have attained a critical mass and were estimated to contribute in excess of 21 per cent of the consolidated revenue, Choksi said.

Referring to other business plans, he said to meet the growing demand in the water-based paints, the company has decided to set up a 10,00,000 TPA plant at Pondicherry.

The plant would be scaled up in a phased manner and investments would be made over a period of time. The necessary approvals for setting up the plant were awaited, he said.

Choksi said the two chemical businesses - phthalic anhydride and pentaerythritol - have performed well during FY03 due to the favourable market conditions. The higher sales volume and better realisation resulted in good margins.

Considering the cyclical nature of this business, the company has adopted a cautious outlook for the current fiscal, he added.

Asian Paints had entered into the chemical business as a backward integration initiative and has no plans for scaling up this business in the near future, he said.

The shareholders, in the AGM, approved the final dividend of Rs 6.5 per share and bonus issue in the ratio of 1:2.