The Chennai-based Murugappa Group is open to the idea of exiting its confectionery business, which is carried out under Parrys Confectionery Ltd.

"If given a good price, we can exit the business," M V Subbiah of the Murugappa Group told newspersons at a press conference in New delhi on Friday.

The group's corporate board executive chairman P S Pai said some preliminary offers have already been received by the group for its confectionery business.

"If the price offered is good enough, we could sell the entire stake in the company," he said. The Murugappa Group's confectionery business has been under attack from multinational rivals over the last few years.

"To survive in this business, you have to constantly make investments like what the multinationals are doing," Subbiah said.

According to Pai, there are two other reasons why Parry's Confectionery could be sold. One, it is the only FMCG business in the group and does not fit in with its other businesses.

And two, the group has a brand -- Parryware -- in the sanitaryware market, which restricts the extent to which the confectionery brand can be leveraged.

Pai added that the group is doing well in all its other manufacturing businesses with industry leadership in several sectors like chains, tubes, abrasives and sanitaryware.

The group, which derives almost half of its turnover and profits from its agriculture-related business, has recorded a turnover of Rs 3,150 crore (Rs 31.5 billion) during the first nine months of the current financial year, which is slightly lower than the Rs 3,220 crore turnover recorded by the group during the corresponding period of the previous year.

Subbiah said that this was because of the fall in the agricultural sector.

According to him, during the nine-month period, April-December 2002-03, the group's turnover in agriculture-related business fell by 13.2 per cent and the PBIT fell by 45 per cent.

However, in manufacturing, turnover was up by 10.7 per cent and PBIT by 9.8 per cent, while the turnover rose by 12 per cent and PBIT by 25.3 per cent  in the services business during the period.