Sugar coated complex

After selling off his Parry confectionary business due to mounting losses, M.V. Subbiah of the Murugappa group is shelling out close to Rs ...

After selling off his Parry confectionary business due to mounting losses, M.V. Subbiah of the Murugappa group is shelling out close to Rs 300 crore to update most of his sugar units’ capacities. Subbiah’s investments in his Nelikuppam complex, that includes a 24 MW cogeneration unit, a distillery and a refinery, has now successfully produced its very own branded refined sugar, which he has just begun selling in Chennai and other southern cities of India.

The tycoon wanted to repeat his success, and thus decided to set up yet another complex. So it’s, Pudukkottai next, where a new integrated sugar complex will soon come up. It will contain a power project with a capacity to crush 2,500 tonnes of sugarcane a day, and may have a distillery too, if the tycoon has his way. The funding for all these plans will, as expected from the conservative group, be through internal accruals and debt. Subbiah will also be able to use the credit he receives for his ‘green projects’. He uses bagasse in his cogeneration plants, based on his ‘waste to wealth’ theory, as he wants to make use of every part of sugarcane.

From the skies to your feet

Tycoon Vijay Mallya has put up his engineering business for sale. This is because what’s high on his mind is Kingfisher Airlines. The grapevine has it that India’s trendiest MP will put the funds from this sale into his airlines, which is estimated to cost Rs 130 crore at start-up. If all goes well, the tycoon may actually fly out in his airlines early next year. Mallya has asked Debis Finance to lease him planes. The tycoon will receive three aircraft, one every month, after his first plane arrives next year. Then another 4 Airbus A-320 aircraft will arrive by 2005-end, and eight more the following year, so that in all Kingfisher Airlines will have 16 planes. Impossible, say experts, who talk of a global shortage of aircraft now. But Mallya doesn’t stop there. He will soon fly straight into the world of footwear. Thus we will soon find a Kingfisher Shoeline. These will be no ordinary shoes, because Manoviraj Khosla and Nico Nerini of Italy will design them. So while he gives you a low-cost airline, he puts a pair of high-cost shoes on our feet. What next, one wonders!

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