Gautam Thapar Picks 25% In James Martin

Ballarpur Industries' vice-chairman and managing director Gautam Thapar has picked up a 25 per cent stake in James Martin India, an IT network consultancy company, through one of his investment companies. Confirming the development, Thapar said: "This is a part of our thrust on information technology."

James Martin India was owned 50 per cent by James Martin of the US, a $250 million company, and 50 per cent by Satish Jha. Thapar bought 25 per cent shares from Satish Jha, even as he has a right to buy another 25 per cent. "The second lot of shares will also be transferred soon," Thapar said.

 

At the moment, by virtue of being a 25 per cent shareholder in the company, Thapar has a nominee on James Martin board.

This is the latest in a string of acquisitions by Thapar in the recent past. In May, Bilt Paper had taken over Sinar Mas Pulp & Paper India in a $136 million deal.

In mid-January this year, the beleaguered parent of the company, Asia Pulp & Paper Co of Indonesia, had approached Thapar to sell off the local arm to tide over a financial crisis.

This, incidentally, was Thapar's fifth acquisition in the last two years at a cost of over Rs 700 crore. Even while talks for the Sinar Mas deal were afoot, his company Bilt Chemicals had acquired the Baroda-based citric acid division of Bharat Starch, a company run by his brother Karan Thapar, in a Rs 22 crore deal.

Last year, Thapar had taken over Servall, a loss-making folding paper board company based at Coimbatore. (Since then, Bilt's Ashti unit has been merged into it. The company has been renamed Bilt Industrial Packaging and the Thapars have raised their stake in the company from 51 per cent to 82 per cent.)

Global Green, the agri-products company of Thapar, had taken over Saptarishi Agro from the Tatas and the agri-products division of the Hyderabad-based tobacco major VST Industries before these deals.