Sirpur Paper Mills Limited (SPM) is an integrated pulp and paper mill situated at

Kagaznagar Sirpur-Kaghaznagar is a town and a municipality in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district in the state of Telangana in India. It is located around 16 km away from Sirpur (T). The town derives its name from the paper factory established during the ...

Komaram Bheem district Komaram Bheem Asifabad district, officially known as Kumuram Bheem Asifabad district, is a district in the Indian state of Telangana. The town of Asifabad is its district headquarters. It is named after Gond tribal leader Komaram Bheem. It wa ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

. JK Paper Ltd acquired Sirpur Paper Mills in August 2018.

Establishment

Sirpur Paper Mills Ltd was established in the erstwhile

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

in 1938 by the

Nizam of Hyderabad The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

Mir Osman Ali Khan Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII (5 or 6 April 1886 — 24 February 1967), was the last Nizam (ruler) of the Princely State of Hyderabad, the largest princely state in British India. He ascended the throne on 29 August 1911, at the age of ...

, with actual production beginning in 1942. This makes it one of the oldest paper mills in the country. In the 1950s, the

Birla family The Birla family is a family connected with the industrial and social history of India. Foundations The Birla family origins lie with the Maheshwari caste of Bania Vaishya traders but they were outcast from their traditional community in 1922 ...

group of industries took over the mill, and it was later transferred to the Poddars. It was owned by R. K. Poddar at the time of its closure.

Closure

At the time of the closure, the mill employed about 3000 workers. The management team cited increasing raw material costs and unavailability of reliable power as the major reasons that impacted the profitability of the plant. Production at the mill had been shut down from September 2014 to August 2018.

Acquisition by JK Paper

Efforts were started by the

Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (born 17 February 1954), often referred to by his initials KCR, is an Indian politician serving as the first and current Chief Minister of Telangana since 2 June 2014. He is the founder and leader of the Bharat Ras ...

government in

to attract new investors to restart production at the mill and boost the local economy, which was heavily dependent on it. The Harsh Pati Singhania-promoted JK Paper Ltd has taken over the ailing sick paper mill, The Sirpur Paper Mills Ltd, located at Kagaznagar in Telangana district. The takeover comes after the National Company Law Tribunal, Hyderabad had on July 19 approved the Rs 782-crore resolution plan. According to the JK Paper management, “The acquisition provides a growth opportunity to JK Paper to expand its existing line of business of paper and paper board.” The company has secured approval from the NCLT Hyderabad Bench and acquired 76.37 per cent stake comprising 13,90,00,000 shares of face value of Rs 10 each. JK Paper does not require approval from the Competition Commission of India as the target business is within the prescribed exemption threshold as per the regulations. As per the arrangement, Rs 371 crore has been settled by the company and its JK Enviro-tech Ltd, towards corporate insolvency resolution process cost, admitted operational creditors, workmen and employees dues among others, as per the terms of the Resolution Plan. This consists of cash payment of Rs 165 crore and issue of securities consisting of equity shares of Rs 43 crore and preference shares of Rs 162 crore by Sirpur Paper Mills Ltd. The company has issued equity shares of SPML through primary subscription at the face value of Rs 10 each. After the lenders lifted the seizure of the paper mills, Harsh Pati Singhania, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of JK Paper, and others opened the paper mill, which will play a major role in the revival of the economy in the newly carved out Komaram Bheem district, where the mill is located. Significantly, KT Rama Rao, Telangana IT and Industries Minister, and local MLA Koneru Konappa, played a role in facilitating the takeover of the mill by ensuring that the State extends certain concessions, which will make the mill viable. JK Paper shares were trading at Rs 148.80, up 5.48 per cent on the BSE.

References

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External links

Official site
Komaram Bheem district Pulp and paper companies of India Hyderabad State