Praj Industries plans Rs100-crore investment in US for acquisition, expansion

30 August 2006

Mumbai: Praj Industries Ltd is investing Rs100 crore for expansion, including acquisition of engineering company, in the US. The board of directors of Praj has approved the proposal at its recent meeting.

The company also plans to invest in a new R&D centre, two manufacturing workshops nearer to the port and expansion of the engineering center at its Pune base.

The company proposes to fund the investment programme from own funds and does not envisage raising any finance. The investments will be carried out over a period of 12-15 months, the company said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Praj is also enhancing its manpower in India with planned addition of over 100 engineers to its existing team.

The company has been actively securing contracts in the US and Europe. Praj has in hand two contracts for ethanol projects in the US while three other orders for supply of technology and engineering (design work) are in the pipeline. The value of the orders is in the region of Rs50 crore ($11 million).

The first two projects are being set up in California while the other plants, with annual capacities of 35 to 100 million gallons, are being planned in the states of Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri. With this, the company has secured a sound base in the US within a span of just 12-18 months.