ITC announces Rs 20,000 crore investment across businesses

ITC Ltd is going to invest Rs 20,000 crore in the medium term across businesses, chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri told shareholders on Friday.

Addressing the company’s 113th annual general meeting, Puri said despite the headwinds the investments made across all our businesses to enhance structural competitiveness and build an enterprise of the future, position the company well to leverage emerging opportunities in the market.

“Our confidence in the India story is unwavering and is reflected in your company’s investment outlay of about Rs 20,000 crore in the medium term,” he said. He did not elaborate further on the investment plans.


Puri said contributing to the ‘Make in India’ vision, ITC continues to invest in building world-class infrastructure and eco-systems linked to its products and services. He said in the last two years, the company has invested in 3-owned luxury hotels, 8 state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, including for products covered under the production linked incentive scheme, and has grown distribution of FMCG products two times.

He said investments are currently underway in two manufacturing facilities and an IT & knowledge centre. The company has opened 32 hotels in the last 24 months taking the total to nearly 140 hotels through both managed and owned properties. Puri said the robust pipeline of managed properties will take the overall footprint to over 200 hotels in the coming years which will be a big force in employment generation.

ITC also wants to make major inroads in taking its businesses global, especially in the neighbouring markets. “The growing competitiveness of ITC’s world-class brands has enabled us to take our products and services to over 100 global markets. Foreign exchange earnings of your company and its subsidiaries have more than doubled since FY20 to over Rs 9,500 crore,” said Puri.

Puri said ITC is proactively pursuing strategic investments in neighbouring markets such as the FMCG facility set up by the company’s subsidiary, Surya Nepal. The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, WelcomHotels Lanka, has launched ITC Ratnadipa hotel in Colombo. “As part of the asset-right strategy for ITC Hotels, opportunities with focus on proximal markets will continue to be explored over time,” he said.