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Chairman of the Kolkata-based company Pawan Ruia on Friday said he was bullish about the sugar sector despite the prices easing in the recent months over expectations of high production.
He was actively considering acquisition of sugar companies and something might be announced soon, Ruia said. "Something big is going to happen in the sugar sector now. I have big plans for the sugar sector," Ruia said.
A sum of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) had already been earmarked for the acquisition, he said. "I want to have a total capacity of 10,000 tcd in near future".
Ruia currently owns Kamlapur Sugar in Uttar Pradesh. The company has also undertaken brownfield expansion to increase its capacity to 7500 tcd from 4,000.
"A capex of 200-250 crore (Rs 2-2.5 billion) will be incurred to expand the capacity to 7500 tcd, captive power to 30 MW and 240 KL of ethanol plant," Ruia said.
Ruia, however, did not disclose any timeframe about when the acquisition was expected to be completed. Meanwhile, Ruia group was inducting more professionals for its group of companies to make them more skillfully managed.
Ruia has roped in Tata Steel veterans S C Saxena and P Roy as managing director and joint managing director for Jessop and Co Saxena will head the heavy engineering and infrastructure group. "Our companies are professionally managed but we are now strengthening this further with our foray into new areas," Ruia said.
"The induction of professionals like Saxena and Roy is just the beginning. We have more such people to head each business area like rubber head, sugar and agri-business," he added.
The group has also finalised its operational restructuring plan for its group of companies and will have three holding companies for its three areas of business.
"We will streamline our holdings but we are not in a hurry as this untangling of holding pattern hardly matters in terms of value creation by each of the company," he said.
The three businesses of the group are, heavy engineering and infrastructure, tyre business and sugar and allied industries.
Jessop and Co, Hirakud Industrial Works, Idcol Rolling Mills, Pallavi Manufacturers and Shipbuilding will be brought under heavy engineering and infrastructure group.
While, Dunlop India and Falcon Tyre and other tyre units will be under tyre business group, Kamlapur Sugar and Industries will be under the sugar sector.