Home-grown FMCG major Emami Limited is looking for acquisitions of foreign and domestic brands for which the company would utilise its free cash reserves of Rs 47 crore (Rs 470 million), its chairman R S Agarwal said on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters after the company's 22nd annual general meeting in Kolkata, Agarwal said the company was looking for brands in the US and UK, adding it was also eyeing domestic brands in the hair care and skin care segments.
Agarwal said Emami also plans to diversify into cultivation of jatropha, which is being used for producing bio-fuel by oil companies. It was also in talks with oil companies for marketing jatropha.
He said the company had applied to the West Bengal government for 300 acres land, of which 50 acres had been allotted to Emami in a place near Bolpur in the Birbhum district.
During the financial year 2005-06, the company was looking at a turnover of Rs 350 crore (Rs 3.5 billion) and 35 per cent growth in net profit.
Emami Bangladesh, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Emami, would become operational by year-end, Agarwal said.
Set up at an investment of Rs 12 crore (Rs 120 million), the outfit would cater to the Bangladesh market, he added.
Agarwal said the group company Emami Paper Mills would invest around Rs 350 crore in setting a newsprint plant at Balasore in Orissa.
With a capacity of 300 tonne per day of the new plant, the total capacity of the company would be increased to 500 tonne per day.
