Expansion plan unveiled ***
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Monira Munni
Meghna Group of Industries will go public to finance its expansion plan. The $1 billion conglomerate has taken ambitious plan of setting up a number of industries, including the biggest chemical factory in the country, a condensed and a powdered milk factory, a paper mill, a salt factory and a composite hatchery. "We are thinking positively to float shares of some of our companies to finance the upcoming projects, subject to the approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)," Mostafa Kamal, chairman and managing director of Meghna Group of Industries told the FE in an interview recently. He however, said the floatation of shares by some of the companies of the conglomerate largely depends on the stable situation of the stock market. "To set up any heavy industry or going for a massive expansion is a lengthy process and we are going through the procedures of setting two or three large heavy industries such as ship building, steel mill and power plant", Mr Kamal said. The group is also marching fast with expansion of many of its existing industries. The list includes sugar and oil, flour, power, shipbuilding, mineral water, printing and packaging, power generation and cement production. "We have taken the risk of investing a huge amount of money focusing the rising domestic demand and export potential," the group chairman said. Meghna Group that mainly produces consumer items in the name of 'Fresh' brand earned over Tk 10.00 billion revenue while it paid over Tk 5.0 billion to the state exchequer in fiscal 2009-10. The group employs 8,000 people permanently and another 4,000 on temporary basis, he said explaining the contribution of his conglomerate to the national economy. The group is also planning to expand its power generation plant to 300-500 mw by next couples of years which is presently supplying 60 megawatt of electricity to the national grid. Of the new industries, the chemical plant would be the most capital intensive. Nearly $40 million would be invested to build the factory that is expected to go for production in early 2012. At present, installation of machineries is going on in the factory and it will produce import substitutes sodium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide and liquid chlorine for textile mills. The next big investment would go to a composite hatchery where breeding, egg producing and meat processing would be done on a land of 100 bighas. A state-of-the-art salt factory is being built with Swiss technology and machine. The condensed Continued to page 20
Meghna Group of Industries will go public to finance its expansion plan. The $1 billion conglomerate has taken ambitious plan of setting up a number of industries, including the biggest chemical factory in the country, a condensed and a powdered milk factory, a paper mill, a salt factory and a composite hatchery. "We are thinking positively to float shares of some of our companies to finance the upcoming projects, subject to the approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)," Mostafa Kamal, chairman and managing director of Meghna Group of Industries told the FE in an interview recently. He however, said the floatation of shares by some of the companies of the conglomerate largely depends on the stable situation of the stock market. "To set up any heavy industry or going for a massive expansion is a lengthy process and we are going through the procedures of setting two or three large heavy industries such as ship building, steel mill and power plant", Mr Kamal said. The group is also marching fast with expansion of many of its existing industries. The list includes sugar and oil, flour, power, shipbuilding, mineral water, printing and packaging, power generation and cement production. "We have taken the risk of investing a huge amount of money focusing the rising domestic demand and export potential," the group chairman said. Meghna Group that mainly produces consumer items in the name of 'Fresh' brand earned over Tk 10.00 billion revenue while it paid over Tk 5.0 billion to the state exchequer in fiscal 2009-10. The group employs 8,000 people permanently and another 4,000 on temporary basis, he said explaining the contribution of his conglomerate to the national economy. The group is also planning to expand its power generation plant to 300-500 mw by next couples of years which is presently supplying 60 megawatt of electricity to the national grid. Of the new industries, the chemical plant would be the most capital intensive. Nearly $40 million would be invested to build the factory that is expected to go for production in early 2012. At present, installation of machineries is going on in the factory and it will produce import substitutes sodium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide and liquid chlorine for textile mills. The next big investment would go to a composite hatchery where breeding, egg producing and meat processing would be done on a land of 100 bighas. A state-of-the-art salt factory is being built with Swiss technology and machine. The condensed Continued to page 20