Ess Dee acquires 90 per cent in ailing India Foils

20 November 2008

Ess Dee Aluminium Ltd, a leading manufacturer and supplier of Aluminium foil-based flexible packaging laminate products, has acquired nearly 90 per cent stake, valued at around Rs130 crore, in Kolkata-based aluminium foils company, India Foils, which is part of the Vedanta group.

"Ess Dee Aluminium and Vedanta group entity Madras Aluminium Company (Malco) have joined hands to revive India Foils. As a part of the rehabilitation plan, we both partners will infuse about Rs261 crore in India Foils in the form of equity and preferential shares, to repay all existing lenders of IFL, thus making it debt-free," Ess Dee chairman and managing director Sudip Dutta said at a media briefing.

Ess Dee and Vedanta will jointly revive the sick company, India Foils in a rehabilitation scheme approved by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR).

Ess Dee will hold around 90 per cent stake and the remaining will be owned by Vedanta's Madras Aluminium Co. The two will plan to make IFL debt free by repaying all its debts with a joint infusion of Rs261 crore, in the form of equity and preference shares.

Dutta, said that for 2008-09, the company will keep growth levels to the same as in the last quarter, and the IFL acquisition will boost the company's rolling capacity from the existing 18,000 tonnes to 37,000 tonnes within a year. An addition 12,000 tonnes capacity will be created by March 2009 and the rest by December next.

Dutta said the additional capacity will also help Ess Dee as it was planning to launch innovative and new anti-counterfeit packaging products, especially aimed at the pharma industry.