Dalmia Bharat to invest over Rs 200cr

NEW DELHI: DalmiaBharat Sugar and Industries Ltd today said it will invest about Rs 200 crore to double the crushing capacity of its sugar plant and set up a power plant in Maharashtra.

The company has three sugar plants in Uttar Pradesh with cane crushing capacity of 22,500 tonnes a day, power generation capacity of 79 mega watts and distillery capacity of 80 kilo litres per day. Last year, it had acquired a sugar plant with a cane crushing capacity of 2,500 tonnes per day at Kolhapur.

"We had entered into Maharashtra by acquiring a stressed sugar plant assets through auction process. The acquisition cost was Rs 135 crore," Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Industries Ltd (DBSIL) Director and CEO B B Mehta told reporters here.

The company has now decided to expand the cane crushing capacity from 2,500 tonnes a day to 5,000 tonnes a day and set up a power plant with a capacity of 23 mega watt, he added.

"The total investment in the Kolhapur plant will be Rs 345 crore, which include acquisition cost," he said, adding funding would be arranged via bank loan and internal accruals.

Mehta said the expansion is expected to be completed by December, this year.

On sugar production, Mehta said it will be 3 lakh tonnes in the 2012-13 marketing year ending September, as against 2.4 lakh tonnes in the last year.

Out of 3 lakh tonnes output expected this year, Uttar Pradesh will contribute 2.5 lakh tonnes, while Kolhapur unit will produce 50,000 tonnes of sugar.

The company, part of Dalmia Bharat Group, had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1 crore in 2011-12 fiscal. The total income stood at Rs 742 crore.

Asked about outlook for this fiscal, Mehta said the company is expected to grow by about 30 per cent on the back of increased volumes largely coming from new plant and higher realisation in sugar, power and distillery segments.

Shares of the company were trading up by 0.58 per cent at Rs 17.25 at 1500 hrs on the BSE.