Aiming to become a Rs 30bn group by 2012, state-owned Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd has chalked out a modernisation and expansion plan, including setting up of a greenfield plant, entailing an investment of nearly Rs 40bn in the next five years.
'HPC has taken up plans to become a Rs 30bn group by 2012 with a capacity of producing over eight lakh tonne of paper and newsprint per annum from the present .33mn tonne,' company's Chairman and Managing Director Raji Philip told a press conference here today.
He said HPC, which operates three integrated paper mills in Assam and Kerala, has lined up an investment of close to Rs 40bn for the expansion and modernisation programme.
The HPC board has already cleared the proposal for setting up a greenfield unit in Uttar Pradesh at an investment of Rs 26bn, he said.
The company was awaiting government approval for the new unit which would have a capacity of three lakh tonne per year. The exact location of the unit in UP was yet to be finalised, Philip said.
He said that another Rs 66.6mn would be spent for modernisation of the Nagaon Paper Mill and Cachar Paper Mill in Assam while Rs 71.9mnwould be pumped in for expansion of Hindustan Newsprint Ltd, HPC's wholly-owned subsidiary in Kerala.
On the financial performance, he said HPC posted a pre-tax profit of Rs 150 crore during 2006-07 against Rs 1.15 bn in the previous year. The total turnover was Rs 10.89 bn
Philip said that efforts were on to revive its unit at Tuli in Nagaland through financial restructuring, for which the Union Cabinet has cleared the proposal.
He said that HPC, which currently exports paper to Bangladesh through the Petrapole border in West Bengal, wants to trade from Sutarkandi near Karimganj in Assam as it would be easier for transaction.
'We have approached the External Affairs Ministry for this,' he said.
