Madras Cements `CSR` funds going to promoter-run trust, analysts crying foul

CHENNAI: South India's No. 2 cement maker Madras Cements, whose industry-beating margins made it a top performer at the bourses last year, is now making investors queasy by its donations to a promoter-run trust for building an engineering college. The Chennai-based company, headed by one of India's highest-paid corporate honchos PR Ramasubrahmaneya Rajha, has set aside a total of 30.5 crore till now for the Raja Charity Trust, owned by the promoter family.

This includes 24.5 crore in 2012-13 (just over 6% of net profit) and a further 6 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal (8.7% of net profit). The donations have "contributed to an increase in other expenditure and added to our concerns," said Milind Raginwar, analyst at SBI Cap Securities. Economic Times