Equisearch pie in West Coast up to 10%

Chandra Vadan Desai, chairman of city-based brokerage, CD Equisearch, has scaled up his holding in West Coast Paper Mills to 10 per cent.

Desai, who figured among the highest individual tax payers three years ago, purchased some shares of the Shree Kumar Bangur flagship from the open market yesterday.

"The paper industry in general, and the company in particular, I believe, has been in for a great time. I have been maintaining for over a year that West Coast figures among the best paper makers of the country. The belief forces me to pile up a substantial holding in the company," Desai said.

Desai, who is learnt to have substantial stakes in a host of companies including Jammu & Kashmir Bank, EID Parry, LIC Housing Finance, Maharashtra Scooters, Graphite India and Ipca Laboratories, says he will pile up holdings if shares are available at the right price.

The Bangur family has a 50.26 per cent stake in West Coast while banks and financial institutions have a combined 4.94 per cent stake. The public holding stands at 32.94 per cent.

West Coast has recently made headlines by purchasing out the shares of ICICI Bank in Rama Newsprint. Industry sources say the Rs 187-crore Rama Newsprint, known for its quality newsprint used by newspapers and publication houses, may be merged with West Coast in a few years.

West Coast managed to restructure debts of Rama Newsprint immediately after buying ICICI Bank's stake. According to the debt restructuring, Rama Newsprint's secured debts, including leasing assistance, came down from Rs 432 crore to Rs 210 crore crone. Interest rate for the debts was fixed at 9 per cent for the first year and 10 per cent for next 8 years.

The acquisition of Rama Newsprint had added 1.5 lakh tonne to West Coast's capacity of 1.63 lakh tonne. West Coast manufactures different varieties of cultural paper, MICR cheque paper, coating paper base and duplex boards.

S K Bangur group chairman Shree Kumar Bangur, along with four other representatives of the group, had joined the board of Rama Newsprint.sp