Date:18/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/12/18/stories/2007121851790300.htm

Back SRF to invest Rs 257 cr in two greenfield projects

Phalguna Jandhyala

Recently in Gwalior SRF Ltd is looking at investing around Rs 257 crore for setting up a greenfield packaging film manufacturing plant and a captive wind power turbine over the next two years.

The company would be investing Rs 165 crore to double its packaging film production capacity in the next two years and would be injecting Rs 92 crore for setting up a wind power turbine in Tamil Nadu to meet the captive demand for three of its manufacturing units in the state.

“The board has given the go ahead to expand the bi-axially oriented polyester (BOPET) film manufacturing plant capacity to 55,000 tonnes, entailing an investment of Rs 165 crore. We would also be investing an additional Rs 92 crore in setting up a 15-MW wind mill to meet our captive needs in Tamil Nadu,” Mr Ashish Bharat Ram, Managing Director of SRF, said.

He added that the company was yet to finalise the location of the new BOPET line. Currently it operates out of two BOPET manufacturing plants in Kashipur, Uttarakhand and Indore, Madhya Pradesh, with an annual capacity of about 27,000 tonnes of packaging film.

Mr Ram said that the company planned to fund the proposed investment through a mix of debt and internal accruals.

Packaging business contributed about 15 per cent to SRF’s overall revenues of about Rs 200 crore last year.

The company’s stock on the Bombay Stock Exchange closed 1.66 per cent down to end the day at Rs 183.25.