Ballarpur Industries Plans To Offload Stake In Owens-Bilt

Ballarpur Industries Ltd (Bilt), the Thapar group flagship and among Indias leading paper manufacturers, is planning to offload the 49 per cent it holds in the equity of Owens-Bilt to the foreign partner, Owens Illinois of the United States.

Earlier this week, a Bilt spokesman confirmed the negotiations with Owens Illinois for divestment of its stake, but would not say the percentage it would offload.

All that we can say at the moment is that we are negotiating with Owens Illinois for sale of our stake, but we cannot at this stage specify the stake we would be offering to Owens Illinois, the company spokesman said.

 

But company sources said Bilts plan to sell its stake in Owens-Bilt is part of its new corporate strategy to move out of various diversified interests and concentrate on its core competencies of paper and chemicals.

Ballarpur Industries which had a glass division in its fold until 1994 had hived it off in the year to form Owens-Bilt in collaboration with the US company.

Owens-Bilt was capitalised with an initial investment of Rs 36 crore with Owens Illinois picking up a 51 per cent stake in it.

The equity base was subsequently raised to Rs 56 crore last year.

However, Owens-Bilt has been making continuous losses since its inception. It made a net loss of Rs 26 crore in the year to March 1996, but cut losses the following year and registered a loss of Rs 14 crore at the end of March 1997.

The company, however, continues to be one of the largest suppliers of soft drink bottles and the sole manufacturer of green bottles and ultra-light bottles in India.

It has factories in Pune, Rishikesh, and Pondicherry while its customers include Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Cadbury, Pfizer and Hoechst.