Chennai
Sridharan Rangarajan, President and CFO, Murugappa Group, said the company will invest about Rs 1,250 crore in expansion. Of this, Rs 200 crore will be towards directed towards Information Technology (IT) in group companies Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Ltd and Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Limited.
“The previous year, we invested Rs 753 crore in expansion of some of our facilities,” Rangarajan said. The group plans to start a housing finance company after obtaining the required regulatorypermissions for it.
Under another group firm TI India, the company planned to set up new tubes plant at Rajpura and capacity expansion in door-frame segment and for railway coach business. The company would also take up capacity expansion on abrasives business under its group entity Carborundum Universal,he said.
Group company Carborundum Universal Ltd has already acquired lithium ion battery technology from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The idea is to understand the technology and look at supplying materials to the makers of such batteries, said Executive ChairmanMM Murugappan.
The group reported a profit of Rs 79 crore in 2018-19 compared to Rs 28 crore a year ago, on the back of its businesses like nutraceuticals and the sale of its biomass business, Murugappan told reporters here.
Murugappan said the capital expenditure programmes include expansion of phosphoric acid plant, capacity expansion in pesticide business under group company Coromandel.
He said group company EID Parry (India) Limited had mothballed two sugar mills in Tamil Nadu following a sugarcane shortage due to drought and shut a sugar mill in Puducherry as well. EID Parry now has two sugar mills functioning in Tamil Nadu, three in Karnataka and one inAndhra Pradesh.
Asked whether the Murugappa Group would exit the sugar business, Murugappan replied in the negative, saying EID Parry can manage the pressure for some time since EID Parry has other “supportive investments”. Rangarajan said the performance of EID Parry has been impacted due to depressed sugar prices on account of huge domestic sugar production, compared to previoussugar season.
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