Emami is ready with Plan B for takeovers

Undeterred by its failed bid to take over Paras Pharmaceuticals, healthcare company Emami Ltd has drawn up a second list of prospective acquisition targets in the same space.

"We have a Plan B. There is a list of companies in the personal and healthcare sector which we will like to bid for," Emami Director Aditya Agarwal told PTI.

Declining to divulge the names of the companies, Agarwal said these companies were both listed and privately held.

Agarwal claimed Emami had put in a Rs 3,400 crore bid for Paras pharmaceuticals. "Since we have not got Paras, we will spend the money in growing our present brands," he said.

Emami's bid was turned down in favour of Reckitt Benckiser, which had submitted a bid of Rs 3,260 crore for the acquisition of Paras Pharmaceuticals.

To a query, Agarwal said it was not possible to give an exact timeframe on how long it would take to close a new deal.

"It can take anything between one month to one year," Agarwal said.

Speaking about the Emami's Group's diversification into the cement business, Agarwal said construction of a 3.1 million tonnes per annum plant had already started at Raipur, in Chhattisgarh.

Emami sources said the group would invest Rs 1,750 crore to set up more cement units over the next three years.

The Raipur plant would be operational by 2012.

On the group's power sector plans, he said the company was yet to finalise a location for the project. He said the firm was looking at West Bengal and Karnataka for setting up a thermal power plant and the North-East for a hydel project.

"We are looking for port-based areas for thermal," Agarwal said.

To a query, he said availability of funds would not be a problem.

About the group's overseas plans, he said it would start jatropha and oilseed plantation activities in Ethiopia.

Agarwal said that Emami Limited, the flagship arm of the group, was looking at a topline growth of 30 per cent in the current fiscal.