Uk Firm To Pick Up Stake In S Kumars

Allied Textile Companies Plc, a £250 million UK company, will be picking up a minor stake in S Kumars Synfabs, the flagship company of the S Kumars group.

Allied Textile chief executive, John R Corrin, said in Mumbai yesterday details of the stake are being worked out, but it will be less than five per cent of S Kumars current equity of Rs 17 crore. The Kasliwal holds 60 per cent and the rest is with the public.

Allied is investing Rs 5 crore in a Rs 186-crore project to manufacture worsted fabrics. Allied's Scotland based wholly-owned subsidiary, Reid & Taylor will be providing technical expertise for setting up the project. The fabrics produced will be marketed under the joint names of S Kumars-Reid & Taylor.

 

John Corrin also said the minor stake could rise in future as the collaboration flourishes. We want it to be a healthy and successful collaboration, he added.

Allied and S Kumars had agreed some years back to set up a plant to make worsted fabrics of Reid & Taylor. Till the plant comes up, Reid & Taylor fabrics will continue to be imported and marketed by S Kumars as it currently does.

The plant will come up near Mysore in Karnataka with a processing capacity of between 10,000-17,000 metres of cloth per day. It will have 12,960 spindles and the weaving unit will have 56 Dornier looms and a finishing house.

The total cost will be Rs 186 crore, and funding has already been tied up.

Vikas Kasliwal, a director of S Kumars said financing will consist of Rs 130 crore of debt which includes foreign currency loans and rupee loans.

The fabrics produced will have a price range between Rs 8,800-Rs 85,000 per metre. Reid & Taylor will buy 25 per cent of the production to be sold in other south and south-east Asian countries.