ITC Ltd, the cigarettes-to-hotels conglomerate, will invest Rs23,000 crore in its various businesses over the next 7-10 years.
The investment would be mainly in three fastest growing sectors — hospitality, consumer goods and paper — the company, Asia’s second-largest cigarette maker by market value, said on Friday.
ITC chairman YC Deveshwar said as much as Rs9,000 crore would go into hotels.
“The hotel industry is viewed as one of the fastest growing sectors in India. According to conservative estimates, there would be a necessity of 50,000 rooms during the next couple of years. So in this sector, ITC views an investment opportunity up to Rs9,000 crore in next 7-10 years to fuel growth,” Deveshwar said after the 99th annual general meeting on Friday.
According to him, new properties are already under construction in Kolkata and Chennai.
“We are planning more such constructions in several other
locations in the coming years,” he said. The second-biggest chunk would go into consumer goods.
“The consumer goods sector in India is growing at a fast stage and it is expected to grow three times in size to around Rs355,000 crore within the next eight years. ITC is all set to take the advantage of this fast growing sector and invest Rs8,000 crore,” Deveshwar said.
The third-largest investment would be in the paper, paper boards and packaging sector.
“We will be investing Rs6,000 in this sector during the next 7-10 years,” Deveshwar said.
He said the company is not inclined to raise its stake in rival hotel operator EIH Ltd, in which it holds a little less than 15%.
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