Time Technoplast - Acquisition of Bahrain based battery manufacturing Company

Time Technoplast Ltd has announces acquisition of 100% shareholding in Gulf Powerbeat WLL (GPW), Kingdom of Bahrain - through its subsidiary (71%) NED Energy Ltd (NED), Hyderabad. GPW has state-of-art production facility at South Alba Industrial Area, Manama, Bahrain for manufacture of high quality Long Life batteries. It is currently owned by a reputed business family of UAE who offered to disinvest in battery business to remain focused on their large size projects in the area of finance and real estate, etc.

The Company has entered into the battery business early this year through acquisition of NED Energy Ltd - Hyderabad based Company, manufacturing Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) batteries mainly for high growth telecom sector. NED has successively increased its capacity in FY '07 and FY '08 (present day capacity 100 mn AH) and is completely sold out on its present capacity.

To meet the huge demand of its products and to further bring new products for the fast growing automotive sector, NED is tripling its present capacity from 100 mn AH to 300 mn AH through project expansion at Jammu (J&K) which is expected to come on stream by Q2 FY'09. This acquisition of GPW shall provide NED 'ready to use' capacity which could be integrated fully with NED's operation in next 3 months.

GPW, Bahrain has installed capacity for telecom / automotive batteries of up to 150 mn AM with surplus capacity to produce vital battery components (grids and Lead plates) of additional 250 mn AH. NED plans to tap GCC market for automotive batteries and bring additional components into India to augment the capacity of its Hyderabad plant from 100 mn AM to 200 mn AM in the first phase.

The total investment in Bahrain project is estimated at US$ 10 mn over next 3 years and shall be financed through a mix of equity contribution from NED and overseas debts.