Jessop plans to invest Rs 1000 crore for ship building business

Kolkata, Jul 27 (UNI) Jessop and Company Limited, India's leading railway coaches and wagon manufacturer, has now planned to diversify into ship building and ship repairing businesses with a total investment of Rs 1000 crore by next year, Jessop Chairman Pawan Kumar Ruia here today said.

Speaking to newsmen after chairing the 74th Annual General Meeting of Jessop, Mr Ruia said after the successful turnaround of the heavy engineering giant and its coming out of the BIFR after three years, they were now planning to focus attention on ship building and ship repairing business and had applied to the West Bengal government for the allotment of 1500 acre of land near the coastline for the proposed dual units in the state.

He said though his plan for the new venture was still at its infancy, he had already started scouting for suitable foreign collaborators both for equity participation and technical help.

Claiming that the 1000-odd employees in Jessop had done wonders by turning a sick unit into a profitable one, and help declare eight per cent dividend for its shareholdetrs for 2005-06 after a gap of nearly 35 years, Mr Ruia said this had given him enough confidence to venture out in a much bigger business proposal.

He said according to preliminary estimates, Rs 1000 crore would be required to diversify into ship building and ship repairing business, the majority of which was proposed to be raised through a public issue and the divestment of promoters' stake by ten per cent.

He, however, refused to disclose the identity of Jessop's possible foreign partners or collaborators, except saying that among the shortlisted companies were Singapore-based "Antara Koh" and the Ukranian ship building and heavy engineering giant "Tack Khom", with which Jessop had already entered into a joint venture partnership for other heavy engineering products like road rollers, Mr Ruia said.

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