History of Pond [Indias] Ltd.

YEAR EVENTS 1977 - The Comp. was incorporated on 5th May, as a Private Limited Comp. under the name Pond [Indias] Pvt Ltd., & its commercial business started on 1st July. Manufacture of Cosmetics & toiletry, Soaps, dental products, clinical thermometers & shoe uppers & processing & packaging mushrooms.

1978 - Comp. was converted into a Public Limited Comp. on 5th June. On July, the Comp. issued 6,10,000 shares to the public. After the issue, the non-resident interest in the Comp. was reduced to 40%.

1981 - During the year, the Comp. undertook to set up a joint venture in Sri lanka in the name of International Cosmetics Ltd., for the manufacture of cosmetics & toilet preparations with the firm Maharaja Organisations limited The Comp. invested 40% of the equity capital.

1987 - During the year, the Comp. sold the 80,000 shares of Sri Lankan Rs.10 each held by it in the joint venture for a total consideration of Sri Lankan Rs. 16,00,000.

1989 - During the year a second new industrial was set up at Tindivanam for manufacture of shoe uppers.

1990 - During the year a new industrial undertaking at Chennai for production of high fashion leather garments was inaugurated in May.

1992 - Comp. entered into a joint selling agreement with Hindustan Lever Ltd., for increasing the sales turnover of personal products through & improved retail distribution net work.

1993 - With effective from 1st January, Quest International India Ltd. was amalgamated with the company. Pursuant to the amalgamation, the Comp. alloted 39,82,290 equity shares of Rs.10 each to the shareholders of Quest Int. India limited in the proportion of 13 shares of Comp. to 10 shares held in QIL. - On 24th December the Comp. issued 9,31,000 equity shares of Rs.10 each at a premium of Rs.170 per share to Unichema Holland BV.

1994 - During the year Comp. entered into new market like Mexico, Argentina, South Africa. A new factory at Daman for manufacture of flavours was commissioned.

1997 - The board of directors of Pond [Indias] Ltd at their meeting on September 11, have recommended a bonus of 1:1 by capitalising an amount of Rs 14,92,75,650, out of general reserve of Comp. subject to the approval of members.

1998 - The Directors at their meeting held on 16th March, considered and approved the proposal for amalgamation of Comp. with Hindustan Lever Limited. Both Companies are 51% subsidiaries of M/s. Unilever plc & have significant overlaps in personal care, speciality chemicals & exports businesses. The two Companies have since 1993, a common sales & distribution system for personal products. The two Companies also have a common pool of management & a common technology base.

- Pond India limited launched their new direct marketing medium consisting of website, a telephone helpline & a customer interactive centre with a touch screen computer kiosk in Bangalore after having installed these in other five major cities.

- Pond India has fixed February 15, 1999 as a record date for allotment of three equity shares of Hindustan Lever for every four existing equity shares of Pond India.

1999 - The sharp increase in HLL share price without corresponding increase in Pond share value meant that it would be attractive to buy Pond & convert it to HLL.

- Shareholders pointed out that nearly 50 per cent of the members are still the original allottees & Pond had always been an long-term investment option. Only a fraction of the total shareholders participated in the January trading & the need for such a time frame is not justified.

2000 - Pond has relaunched the Pond Dreamflower Magic Talc with a special deondorant feature.