The Hindu Business Line : Pratibha Syntex to raise Rs 350 cr for expansion

Pratibha Syntex, whose clients include, Sara Lee and Woolworth, plans to raise around Rs 350 crore to fund its expansion plans. The company's Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Shreyaskar Chaudhary, told Business Line that the company expects to double the number of customers to around 40. "Capacity has been the only constraint so far. Once we expand our facility, we will increase our client list," he said. Pratibha, which also makes garments out of organic cotton, is also in talks with Tommy Hilfiger and Tesco and also with Reliance, which is planning its retail foray.

He said around Rs 233 crore will be raised through term loans and the rest through equity dilution and internal accruals.

He said the company plans to utilise the funds for de-bottlenecking and enlargement of value-added products in knits. It is also planning to invest in setting up of a 6-MW captive power plant and a terry towel manufacturing unit which will have an installed capacity of 12,000 tonnes per annum.

The capacity of the terry towel unit would be doubled later.

Mr Chaudhary said there was a huge opportunity in the terry towel segment. The current capacity for producing terry towels in the country is around 110,000 tonnes, while the utilised capacity is around 75,000 tonnes. With an average growth rate of 25 per cent, the additional capacity required will be between 15,000 tonnes and 20,000 tonnes per year, he said.