Vohra: Big plans

Calcutta, June 25: SPS Group has acquired two closed sick units — Indo American Electric Co Ltd and Bharat Biscuit.

Durgapur-based Indo American Electric is into copper wire manufacturing for transformers and heavy duty motors.

The unit, which was referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction, has 185 employees on the rolls. It was closed for the last 15 years.

Bipin Vohra, the chairman of SPS Group, said the unit would be revived in three months. The group has invested Rs 6.5 crore on the acquisition. The IDBI had a 58 per cent stake in the company, located on a seven-acre plot, while promoter Manmohan Singh held the rest.

SPS Group will invest Rs 10 crore now to start work and another Rs 15 crore later to build a transformer.

The group will invest Rs 3 crore to buy Bharat Biscuit, located at Boral in South 24 Parganas.

The unit has 110 employees and a 375-tonne capacity a month. Vohra said he planned to expand the capacity to 1,000 tonnes a month in six to eight months. This will require an investment of Rs 4 crore.

“We will employ 300 people once the capacity is increased,” he said.

SPS Group took on the company’s liability of Rs 3 crore in exchange for a 52 per cent share in the company and management control from promoters Jotirmoy Mukherjee and Joy Mukherjee.

Bharat Biscuit was referred to the industrial reconstruction ministry of the state government after it turned sick.

These acquisitions mark SPS Group’s entry into two new sectors. Vohra defended the move by saying that the group has grown by acquiring sick companies and turning them around.

SPS Group has interests in steel, construction, hospitality, education and media.

Vohra said the group’s turnover stood at Rs 2,000 crore and was expected to touch Rs 5,000 crore by 2010.

The Rs 900-crore integrated steel plant in Orissa with a capacity of 0.5 million tonnes of finished steel would be a major driver to reach that target.

Hotel tie up

SPS Group is likely to sign an agreement with ITC for managing the Raatdin Hotel in central Calcutta next week.

Vohra said the hotel would sport the Fortune Central tag — the upmarket business hotel brand of ITC.

SPS Group will invest Rs 60 crore to upgrade the hotel by adding more rooms and additional facilities such as spa, swimming pool, health club and banquet hall.