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ICI plans new paint unit in south India

By IANS,

Kolkata : Paint manufacturer ICI India plans to set up a new plant in south India, a top company official said here Thursday.

“We are looking at places in south India, in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,” ICI managing director Amit Jain told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s 55th annual general meeting.

The paint manufacturer has chalked out an approximate investment plan of Rs.200 crore for the greenfield project.

“Active dialogues have been started with the state governments. We will firm up our plan by this fiscal,” Jain said.

ICI already has a plant in Andhra Pradesh – in Hyderabad, apart from Mohali in Punjab and Thane in Maharashtra.

Jain said the company is looking at capacity augmentation in the two existing plants, but declined to specify the amount of investment envisaged.

At present, ICI manufactures 70 million litres of paints per annum.

The company’s net profits in the April-June quarter fell marginally to Rs.69.2 crore from Rs.70.9 crore in corresponding period the previous fiscal.

Higher tax provisioning due to higher profits and lower indexation benefit in investment income impacted profits, Jain said.