Reports says Kaveri seeds to foray into cold storage, green house technology business
Hyderabad: Kaveri Seeds Ltd, Hyderabad based seed manufacturer planning to enter in to cold storage business by setting up a separate entity, according to recent media reports quoting G.V. Bhasker Rao, Managing Director of the company.
The company plans to invest up to Rs. 100 Cr on cold storage business by setting up 10 cold storage units across the state. The cold storage units will come primarily in the areas, where vegetables and fruits harvesting is high, Rao said.
“The company is ready to invest Rs.100 crore on cold storage units. We will setup 10 cold storage units in suitable places in Andhra Pradesh in next two years,” the repor said quoting Rao.
Apart from the cold storage business, The company plans to invest another Rs.100 Cr on green house facility, which can be spread in 25 acres.
We have been tied up with an Israel firm Netaphim to develop this facility on turnkey basis.
“First phase of production in this facility would be started in couple of months,” he said.
The company is in the process of setting up a subsidiary to look after these two businesses.
For the Green House Project, Kaveri Seeds already acquired 250 acres of land near Shameerpet, 45 km away from Hyderabad.
The company plans to go for vegetables and fruits harvesting in this green house project applying modern technology, mainly for European exports.
IDFC Ventures may buy stake
Private Equity firm, IDFC Ventures is believed to be in talks with Kaveri Seeds to take a stake in the newly incorporated arm.
‘We will raise funds up to 25% from internal accruals, 25% from banks as debt and another 50% from PE companies to meet our requirement. Couple of PE firms have shown their interest to take a share in our new subsidiary, where we can dilute upto 40% stake’ Mr. Rao has said, without mentioning IDFC.
At present, IDFC has 8.30% stake in Kaveri Seeds and promoter group holds 62.14% in the company.
Kaveri Seeds, with a significant presence in seed industry is planning to introduce new paddy, wheat, Bt cotton and vegetable seed varieties into the market this year.
Contributed by R.Reddy
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment