Ashish Jain, Chief Financial Officer, Jindal Cotex Ltd

Ashish Jain, Chief Financial Officer,Jindal Cotex Ltd has done his graduation in commerce from Punjab University in 1999,and is a member of the Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He has anoverall experience of 6 years in finance, taxation and accounts. He started his career in2003 with Jain Subhash & Co., Chartered Accountants firm in Ludhiana and joined JindalCotex Ltd in 2007. He is responsible for managing the financial and bank matters. He isalso responsible for fund planning, MIS, secretarial and liasioning with Banks,Institutions and Government offices.

Jindal Cotex Ltd. (JCL) is a flagship company of Jindal group. Ludhiana is an industrial hub of Punjab which is also known as Manchester of India. The Jindal Group was promoted by Jagdish Rai Jindal in 1977 with trading business of iron and steel. From the time of its inception, Jindal Group has seen substantial growth. The Group expanded its operation by way of backward integration in the year 1994 by setting up a steel re-rolling plant for the manufacturing of rounds and flat steels. In 1998, the Group diversified into textile business and promoted Jindal Cotex with the mandate of manufacturing of synthetic, cotton and blended yarns. At its incorporation the company had an installed capacity of 7000 Spindles. Today the capacity has increased multifold to the level of 24000 Spindles.

Speaking with Yash Ved of India Infoline, Ashish Jain said "Going forward, technical textiles will become prominent on the revenue front also."

What is the outlook for the textiles’ industry?
The textiles industry is among the largest contributors to the GDP. The industry has already established itself well. We are the largest exporters of yarns. We export yarn and import fabrics.

The industry is implementing technology-upgraded projects to get better views in conventional side. It has been growing at the rate of 15-20% and has been the second-largest employer in India.

What is the amount raised through your IPO? What is the promoters’ holding after the IPO?

We have raised Rs930mn from the IPO. The promoters shareholding is 55%.

Brief us about your capex and expansion plans?
We have a capex plan of Rs3.75bn. Out of this, Rs2.5bn will go in technical textiles business.

What are your plans for technical textiles?
We are setting up a project for medical textiles in Una district of Himachal Pradesh. The total project cost is Rs880mn. It will be funded by way of a term loan ofRs580mn from SBI and another Rs300mn will be utilized from the IPO proceeds.

We have tied up with a company called Texcore Industries of Korea for cotton crepe bandage and medical project for technical services as well as for marketing support.

Brief us about your Technical textiles business?
It is not a normal conventional textile business. Technical textiles encompasses spinning, weaving, dying, processing and garmenting. We are targeting these particular segments for textiles.

There are two major segments in technical textiles - Builtech and Meditech. Meditech is medical product which goes into the manufacturing of gauges, gloves, and all other products which are medical textile products. Builtech is specifically used for laminated fabric products. We are planning to invest Rs1.35bn in conventional textiles and around dRs2.5bn in technical textile projects.

Going forward, technical textiles will bring in increased revenues. About 90% of the proceeds are being invested in technical textiles. We expect revenue of about 60-70% in technical textiles business.

What is the debt-equity ratio?
Our debt equity ratio is 2:1.

What is the total workforce? What are your recruitment plans?

Our employee strength is 425 and we are planning to increase the employee strength to 1000 in FY10.