NSL acquires Jay Mahesh sugar unit for Rs 230 cr

NSL Sugars, part of the Hyderabad-based NSL group, has acquired 100 per cent stake in Jay Mahesh Sugar Industries, an integrated sugar complex located in Beed district of Maharashtra, for around Rs 230 crore. The company said it would fund the deal from internal accruals.

Jay Mahesh's sugar complex has a capacity of 5,000 tonnes of cane crushing per day (TCD), and a total asset base of Rs 300 crore. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chandigarh-based Spray Engineering Devices Limited, which in turn bought it as a going concern in 2006.

NSL group chairman Mandava Prabhakar Rao said the acquisition marked the NSL's entry into Maharashtra. "Our sugar team will be aggressive in exploring new opportunities and expanding the business," he said in a statement.

NSL has four plants in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka with a total crushing capacity of 20,000 tonnes, and has set a target of taking it to 100,000 tonnes globally by 2015, according to the company. It is also looking at large-scale opportunities in South America and Africa.

According to NSL Sugars joint managing director Hari Vallurupalli, the technology of Jay Mahesh is superior and would allow a better recovery of sugar at 11.5 per cent compared with 10 per cent for other sugar mills. NSL would try to sustain and improve the sugar recovery rate, he said.

The planned 100 kilolitre per day (KLPD) distillery and a 30-Mw cogeneration plant at the acquired plant is expected to be executed by next two sugar crushing seasons, Vallurupalli said.

Jay Mahesh cane zone covers 108 villages with an aggregate cultivable area of more than 83,460 hectares and the major operational area falls within a radius of 15 km.

The company said the sugar unit used technologies which consumed less power steam than the conventional process. The sugarcane produced in the area had higher sucrose content of 15-25 per cent compared with other parts of the country.