AKSH OPTIFIBRE LIMITED - TRANSCRIPT

AGM Held On 21.09.2020 At 11.30 A.M.

Dr. Kailash S. Choudhari - Chairman: Good Morning Dear Shareholders,
I Kailash S. Choudhari, welcome all the members on behalf of the Board of Directors at the 33rd Annual General Meeting of the Company. I hope in this unusual time, your family is well and safe. In view of the restrictions due to outbreak of COVID-19 and considering the social distancing norms, this meeting is being held through video conferencing in accordance with the circular issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Securities and Exchange Board of India.
All the Board of Directors including the Chairman of Stakeholders Relationship Committee, Nomination and Remuneration Committee and Audit Committee, Key Managerial Personnel, Statutory Auditors and Secretarial Auditors are attending the Annual General Meeting.
As the requisite quorum is present through video conference to conduct the proceedings of this meeting. I call this meeting to order.
I now request Mr. Gaurav Mehta, Company Secretary, to brief general instructions to the members regarding participation in this meeting.

Mr. Gaurav Mehta - Company Secretary & Compliance Officer Good Morning Dear Shareholders.
The Members may note that this Annual General Meeting is being held through video conferencing in accordance with the Companies Act 2013 and circulars issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Securities and Exchange Board of India. First of all, I would like to mention that, every member who has joined the meeting is on mute by default in order to avoid any disturbances arising from background noise and to ensure seamless conduct of the meeting.
Facility for joining this meeting through video conference or other audio-visual means is made available for the members on a first-come-first-serve basis.
The Register of Directors and Key Managerial Personnel, the Register of Contracts or Arrangements, are available for inspection. The Members seeking to inspect such documents can send their requests to the email ID as mentioned in the Notice of AGM.
As the AGM is being held through video conference, the facility for appointment of proxies by the members was not applicable and hence the proxy register for inspection is not available.
Only members who have registered themselves as a speaker will be allowed to speak or ask questions during the AGM. Accordingly, the floor will be open for these members to ask questions or express their views. The moderator will facilitate this session once the Chairman opens the floor for questions and answers. As the question/answer session start, the moderator will announce the name of shareholder one by one. On calling the name, the speaker shareholder has to unmute himself or herself and if the shareholder faces any connectivity issues, the moderator will announce name of next registered shareholder to speak. However Company reserves the right to limit the number of members asking questions depending on the availability of time at the AGM.
Every speaker shall be given maximum 3 minutes duration for asking query.
The Company had provided the facility to cast the votes electronically, on all resolutions set forth in the Notice. Members who have not cast their votes yet electronically and who are participating in this meeting will have an opportunity to cast their votes during the meeting through the e-voting system provided by KFIN Technologies Pvt Ltd. Members can click on "Vote" tab on the video conference screen to avail this feature. Members are requested to refer to the Instructions provided in the notice or appearing on the video conference page, for a seamless participation through video conferencing.
M/s Pooja Anand & Associates, Company Secretaries, has been appointed as Scrutinizer to scrutinize the electronic voting process in a fair and transparent manner, and to provide report thereon.
Now I would again request the Chairman to take the meeting forward.

Dr. Kailash S. Choudhari - Chairman: Thank you Gaurav. The Statutory Auditors, BGG & Associates has issued a statutory Audit report which is free from qualifications, observations or adverse comments and is self-explanatory.
The Statutory Auditors report on standalone financial statements and consolidated financial statements are available on Page numbers 50 and 92 of the annual report respectively.
Further, the Secretarial Auditor, Himanshu Sharma & Associates, has issued a Secretarial Audit Report and has given some observations. Secretarial Auditor report is available on Page number 18 of the annual report. The explanation of the observation is provided in Director's Report on Page No. 14 of the Annual Report.
The Notice convening the Annual General Meeting was posted to all the members, I take the Notice convening this meeting as read.
Pursuant to the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013, the Rules framed thereunder and the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, the Company had extended the remote e-voting facility to the Members of the Company in respect of the resolutions to be passed at the Meeting. The facility for voting through e-voting is also made available during the Meeting for Members who had not cast their vote prior to the Meeting.
I request all the members to cast their vote to the resolutions stated in the Notice of AGM.
The results of voting on each resolution shall be determined by adding the votes casted during the meeting in favour or against a resolution with the electronic votes casted earlier in favour or against the same resolution. Upon receipt of Scrutinizer's Report, the results of the voting shall be declared on or before 11:30 a.m. on September 22, 2020.
The results declared along with the Scrutinizer's Report shall be placed on the Company's website and on the website of KFIN Technologies Private Limited and the same shall also be communicated to National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) and BSE Ltd (BSE).
Those members who have registered themselves as Speaker and desires to ask any question pertaining to any item on the Notice, he/she may do so now. Members are requested to keep their questions brief and specific. To avoid repetition, the answers to all the questions will be provided at the end. Thank you.
Than you sir, this is the Moderator here.
I will bring the pre-registered speakers one by one.
1st Speaker Mr.Chetan Chadha. Mr.Chetan Chadha is not joined at this moment, so we will move to the next speaker Mr. Dinesh Gopal Das Bhatia. I would request Mr. Dinesh Gopal Das Bhatia to unmute your audio and switch on your camera and proceed with your query. Thank you.
Mr. Dinesh Gopal Das Bhatia .sir you are on mute, we request you to unmute yourself and speak please, Thank you. Sir, still you are on mute, on the bottom of the screen, you will see a Red Colored Mike button, which is on floating, I would request you to please switch on that.
Since the speaker is unable to unmute, we will come back to the speaker little later, we will move to the next speaker Mr. Manjit Singh. I would request Mr. Manjit Singh to unmute your audio and switch on your camera and proceed with your query.
Mr. Manjit Singh: Sir are you able to hear me.
Yes, we are able to hear you sir, you can proceed.
Chairman of AKSH OPTIEFIBRE, All Directors, All Secretarial Team members and Plant staff and fellow shareholders, I am welcoming you all.
I pray the LORD to give strength and courage to everyone of us to fight against COVID-19, we should be not be affected with COVID-19 and we are all should be safe and healthy. I pray the LORD to completely take away the deadly decease - COVID-19 from this universe.
Chairman Sir, I would like to ask you that, what will be the impact on our business during the 1st Quarter on our Order Book. What about the impact on next 3 quarters on Order Book, please provide your inputs.
I want the R&D department should work on the lines of the technology which we are using at present to conduct the AGM through Virtual Mode and there should be a seamless meeting should be conducted without any technical glitches.
As you are a Fibre based company, my request is that shareholders should be in a position to join the meeting seamlessly. The problems which the shareholders facing with Audio and Video should be kept in mind before going ahead with the new product.
With regard to CSR activity, I would like to request you to come up with a plan or advertisement with regard to maintaining social distancing and wearing of Mask. Please engage your volunteers to inform the importance of Social Distancing and wearing of mask. This is very important for Society.
During this Covid 19 period, there were lot of Booms occurred in the Market, and I would like to know, whether was there any foreign investment opportunity during this Covid 19. Is there any chance of Rights Issue or any other plans through which the money from other clients /countries will be received in our company.
The efforts put in by Secretarial team and KFIN team is very nice. Due to the fantastic work done by these two entities, we are able to join the meeting through Virtual Mode. Thank you.
Moderator: Thank you Sir. We will go to the next speaker, Mr. CHANDRAKANT BABUBHAI MEHTA has not joined. The speaker is Mr. Ajay Kumar Jain. I would request Mr. Ajay Kumar Jain to unmute your audio and switch on your camera and proceed with your query. Thank you.
Mr. Ajay Kumar Jain: Yes Sir, Mr. Ajay Kumar Jain, you have unmuted yourself, you can proceed with your query.
Sir, you can ask question now. You have already unmuted yourself, you can ask the question now.
As your volume is very low, we request you to log out and login once again. Thank you.
So, we will go to the next speaker, NAYNA CHANDRAKANT MEHTA. Sir you have joined, but not joined with Audio.
Hence, we will go to the next speaker Mr. Lokesh Gupta. I would request Mr. Lokesh Gupta to unmute your audio, switch on your camera and proceed with your query please. Mr. Lokesh Gupta.
Mr. Lokesh Gupta: Sir, I am audible. Yes Sir, you are audible. My self Lokesh Gupta and would like to welcome all board members. I am a very old shareholder of your company and I have attended lot of meetings in your plant as well. I wish that during the COVID-19, we are all should be safe.
Sir, when we joined this company as a shareholders, the performance of the company was very good.
Now also, there is Ups and Downs in the company and the money which our company need to take from BSNL might got delayed but our companies performance was never came down.
Sir, there is a new discussion going on with regard to 5G and what is the strategy adopted by company and what are all the future plans of company with regard to 5G technology. Sir, with the introduction of 5G our company share should be moved from 2 digit to 3 digit based on the company's performance. Our Secretarial Department is doing very well and responding to shareholders nicely. The way the Secretarial Department had given the brief about how to login, how to connect and how to ask the questions etc., is really amazing and I am very much thankful to them. Thank you sir.
Moderator: Thank you sir. We will be moving to our next speaker shareholder Mr. Murlidhar Talreja, was not joined at this moment, we will go to the next speaker Mr. Kishan Lal Chadha. I would request Mr. Kishan Lal Chadha to unmute your audio, switch on your camera and proceed with your queries. Thank you.
Mr. Krishan Lal Chadha: Sir, I welcome the Chairman and my board of directors and my co fellow shareholders and my CS department. Sir in this Pandemic Situation, we are attending the first AGM like this through Video and Audio Mode. The whole entire world is facing the problem of Corona Virus. Sir, I am a very old shareholder of your company. The ups and downs of the company is a continuous process Sir. During this crisis situation our Fibre company had shown good performance.
Our company is doing good in the market. During the Pandemic situation, we have seen lot of companies are not performing well and we at losses, but our company is good in this situation also. I would like to thank the management for showing the good performance in the market. I hope that, going forward (in the future) we will come out of this Pandemic situation and our company will do in the market. During the last time, the buyback price was very good and now due to this Covid Situation, still the management is facing the problem with the price of the share. We have full confidence in the company, hence we have not participated in the Buy Back offer given by the company as well. We know that the company will do very good in near future and the net worth of the company and the book value of the company will be fantastic. Our company's order book value is very good. We have full faith on the company, hence we want to be there with the company for a long time and we have not participated in the buy back offer and in the future also we will stick to this company. The efforts made the management and the Secretarial team is fabulous.
In the recent past there were news about Mr. Gupta ji's allegations on the company. But my personal view is that putting allegations on some one is very easy but to proof the allegations is very difficult. If there is a problem, we need to sit and discuss and solve the issues instead of raising allegations on some one.
I would like to thank the secretarial team and the Moderator who had given an opportunity to participate in to this AGM through Video Conferencing. As there were lot of problems (technical) in joining the meeting through V C, but the support received from Secretarial Team is excellent.
As now the work from home culture is going on, I feel that our employees should work from home and they should be safe.
Mr. Chairman Sir, my last question is, there was a delay in getting the payments from BSNL and I understand the situation and request you to follow up with BSNL for recovering the amount.
Thank you sir, thank you so much, I want to thank the secretarial department as well. I have received the Annual Report on time. Sir, next AGM should be done in physical mode rather than in Video Conferencing mode.
Moderator: Our next speaker Mr. Pramod Kumar Jain not joined. With this we have completed with the pre-registered speakers and we have left out with one speaker, Mr. Chetan Chadha, I would request you to unmute your audio, switch on your camera and proceed with your query. Thank you.
Mr. Chetan Chadha, there is lot of disturbance in your Audio. Mr. Chetan Chadha, please proceed with your query.
As we are losing the Audio of Mr. Chetan Chadha, we will move to the next speaker Mr. Dinesh Gopal Das Bhatia, I would request you to unmute your audio, switch on your camera and proceed with your query. Thank you.
Since there is no response from Mr. Dinesh Gopal Das Bhatia, with this we have complete the pre-registered speakers questions session. Now, we are handing over the stage back to the Chairman. Thank you.
Chairman: Thank you. Ranjit Ji, Lokesh Ji, Chadha Ji - I thank you very much for your queries. I have heard all the questions from the speakers and I would like give replies to all the questions. There might be repetitive questions, I have kind of noted the questions and I would try to answer all of them. Largely I see the questions about COVID where AKSH FIBRE had taken full pre-cautions against the COVID and all the suggestions made by the Government. First month after COVID Declaration, our plants were not operating but now started operations with all the desired parameters being under control and also say that because of the COVID Pandemic and as advised by the Prime Minister AKSH been able to pay all the salaries with no pay deductions and there is attrition also during COVID period.
Second question largely common was about the order book and how the next 3 quarter will go. Whereas Largely COVID is behind us and next 3 quarters outlook looks very good, I would say the whole year out for look for this year will be significant improvement over our last year performance.
Also somebody suggested about the requirement of Optic Fibre in the R & D department , so AKSH's work very hard and we have designed and our team has work for Cable specifically for Fibre to Home and to care of the demand which has come because of the COVID situation, I think their hard work will get reflected in the results which are coming in the next 3 quarters.
Regarding the CSR activity also we have made a note and we will pass it on to our CSR Committee.
As far as capacity utilization goes, one of our operation is reached nearly full capacity the FRB, the Fibre and Cable plant are still running at half the capacity and we think in the coming 3 quarters even the cable and the Fibre plant will reach full capacity. Because now the nature of the type of the cable has changed, we well equipped to address what we call the Last Mile Type of Cable.
As far as BSNL issue goes, we still working hard to at whatever balance payment we have to receive, over all I think the team of AKSH has done very well and I think the proof of reporting will be on the performance in the coming next 3 quarters. I hope I have addressed most of the queries which have been raised, people are welcome to put their queries on mail and our team and the Secretarial Department will promptly come and respond to them.
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the members for their participation, suggestions and comments.
Now the shareholders are given 15 minutes time to cast your valuable votes in respect of the items stated in the Notice. The instructions for voting has been described in the Notice of the Annual General Meeting.
And once again thank you to everybody for enabling this successful meeting which online and not physical.
And thank you specially to the Secretarial Team our I.T. department to the Moderator and all our directors who have made meeting happen. Thank you very much.
Thank you chairman sir, do you want us to play the Instapoll slide or you wanted the directors to come to your cabin now. Every Board of Director wanted to be in the Chairman's cabin. All the Directors assembled in the Chairman's cabin.
Insta Poll slide was shown on the screen with 15 minutes timer.