Dhunseri Tea & Industries, which produces more than 10 million kgs of tea annually, has entered into an agreement with Shyam Khetojan Tea Company for sale of its Khetojan tea estate in Assam.
The estate is being sold as a going concern to the partnership firm for a total consideration of Rs 6.60 crore, the company said in a filing with the stock exchanges. Khetojan estate produces 2.2 lakh kgs of tea annually.
When contacted, Dhunseri Tea & Industries chairman C K Dhanuka said: “We plan to sell two more Assam tea estates, namely Bahadur tea estate and Santi tea estate by end December 2020.”
The company is in advanced stage of negotiations to sell off these two assets. It hopes to clinch the deal soon.
While Bahadur estate produces 3.6 lakh kgs of tea per annum, Santi estate produces 2.6 lakh kgs of tea per annum.
Sale of these three tea estates will fetch the city-based Dhunseri group anything between Rs 30 crore – Rs 40 crore, company officials said. Post sellf off, the company will have 8 tea estates under its fold in India.
Going forward, Dhunseri Tea & Industries also intends to buy a tea estate, either in India or Africa and take initiatives to scale up the production of existing plantations to maintain its annual throughput of 10 million kgs in India.
Dhanuka, however, refused to share any more details citing confidentiality reasons.
According to the company’s annual report of FY’2019-20, its Indian operations produced 10.33 million kgs (10.07 million kgs) and African operations, 9.52 million kgs (8.70 million kgs).
Source: Economic Times