Paradeep Phosphates Board Recast

The board of directors of Paradeep Phosphates has been reconstituted after the company was taken over by Zuari Maroc Phosphates, a 51:49 joint venture between the K K Birla-promoted Zuari Industries and Maroc Phosphore of Morocco, for a consideration of Rs 151.70 crore.

The change will be with effect from February 28 when the joint venture company formally took over the government's 74 per cent stake.

In the new seven-member board of Paradeep Phosphates Ltd, Zuari Maroc Phosphates has five nominees, while the government, which is left with a 26 per cent stake in the company, has two nominees. Again, among the five nominees of Zuari Maroc Phosphates, while Zuari Industries has three nominees, Maroc Phosphore, a fully-owned subsidiary of the Morocco-based fertiliser major OCP, has two nominees.

While Zuari Industries managing director H S Bawa is the new chairman of Paradeep Phosphates, K K Gupta, the former executive president of Indian Furniture Products, a division of Zuari Industries, and the managing director of Gautier India, a joint venture company of Zuari Industries, has been appointed the managing director of Paradeep Phosphates.

In addition, Akshay Poddar has been nominated on the board. The Maroc Phosphore nominees on the board are Mohammed Ksikes and Abdul Hadi Ninia, both citizens of Morocco. And the Government of India nominees on the Paradeep Phosphate board are Sudhir Krishna, a joint secretary in the department of fertiliser, and Manish Gupta, a deputy secretary in the department of fertilisers.

All except K K Gupta are non-executive directors on the board. Meanwhile, Zuari Industries is looking for a successor for Gupta to run the furniture business. At the moment, it is being looked after by Arun Mahajan.

The Zuari-Chambal group plans to invest Rs 50-100 crore in raising Paradeep Phosphate's DAP (di-ammonium phosphate) production capacity from the existing 720,000 tonne per annum to over a million tpa within the next 12-18 months.

"This, with Zuari Industries' capacity of 700,000 tpa and the 200,000 tpa that Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals markets every year, will make us the largest player in the DAP market in the country," Bawa had said soon after the government's decision to offer the company to the Zuari-Chambal group.