The Hindu Business Line : Amartex to go in for IPO to fund retail expansion

AMARTEX Industries Ltd on Thursday announced plans to approach the capital market by this year-end to raise around Rs 60 crore. The company plans to invest the funds in increasing its retail presence across the country from 30 outlets at present to around 50 by the end of 2006-07.

The Panchkula-headquartered textile manufacturing and retailing firm also aims to shed its north India-centric image and spread out to the rest of the country, the Managing Director, Mr Arun Grover, said here.

"We have already tied up with State Bank of India Capital Markets Ltd for advisory service for the IPO and Karvy for providing financial service," he said. The company would launch its first retail outlet in the Capital in Paschim Vihar on August 27.

"We are planning to open 8 to 10 such shops in Delhi and the National Capital Region by the end of the next fiscal with a total investment of around Rs 20 crore. Three of them would start functioning this financial year itself," Mr Grover said.

With a capacity of 13.20 lakh metres of ready-to-wear garments a year, Amartex is targeting raising its current annual turnover from Rs 100 crore to over Rs 175 crore in the current fiscal, leveraging its advantages of in-house manufacturing facilities, newer varieties of merchandise and absence of middlemen in marketing, he added.

The Amartex General Manager (Marketing), Mr Anil Bhardwaj, said the company would focus only on the domestic market for the next year, and had no plans of exporting, as of now, in the post-quota regime. Founded in 1988 as a textile unit in Panchkula, Amartex got into retail sales a decade later and currently has outlets in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal and Chandigarh, besides the one coming up in Delhi.

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