WB, Karnataka, NE in Emami radar for power foray

Emami, which had announced plans for venturing into the power sector, has identified West Bengal, Karnataka and the North-east as possible locations for putting up plants.

"We are both looking at thermal and hydel. For thermal, we are looking at port-based areas and the North-east for hydel," director of Emami group Aditya Agarwal told PTI.

Asked which locations Emami was considering for thermal power projects, he said West Bengal and Karnataka were 'very much' on the radar.

Agarwal said availabilty of funds would not be a problem for foraying into power generation.

Referring to the group's business plans in Ethiopia, he said the company had sought one lakh acres from the government for its plantation activity.

He said the company was planning to start cultivation of jatropha for bio-diesel and oilseeds for sellling in the Ethiopian market.

Agarwal said that company was also mulling to set up a paper plant in that country.

To a query, he said although Emami had a bio-diesel plant at Haldia in West Bengal, production could not commence due to lack of potential customers.

Agarwal said that the company was also looking at the possibility of exporting bio-diesel to Ethiopia from India.

He said Emami would also look into the viability of exporting bio-diesel to Europe due to high transportation costs which were involved.

Asked about the topline growth which Emami Limited, the FMCG arm of the group, was expecting during the current financial year, Agarwal said it would be in the region of 30 per cent.

Emami had made national launch of several of its FMCG products recently, he added.