ITC Ltd plans to spend ₹20,000 crore in the next five years to ramp up capacities in fast moving consumer goods and paper businesses among others, the company's chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri informed the shareholders on Friday.

Speaking at the 113th annual general meeting of the company, Puri said ITC’s ‘confidence in the India story is unwavering’ and it is reflected in the company’s investment outlay in the medium term.

Puri’s announcement comes close on the heels of Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman exhorting the private sector to step up capex, saying India offered the ‘brightest’ opportunity.

ITC’s investment programme also follows a stable taxation regime undertaken by the finance ministry lately. The budget presented earlier this week did not hike taxes on cigarettes, the biggest money-spinner for the company. A stable regime allows regulated entities such as ITC to claw back shares from non-tax paying illicit trade, while boosting the exchequer.

Elaborating further on the investment programme, Puri said about 35-40 per cent of the outlay would be spent in FMCG business and about 30-35 per cent in paperboard and packaging. The rest is being earmarked for agri and other businesses.

In FMCG, ITC intends to augment capacity of the existing units and build a few new ones. Investments will go in adding machinery, upgrading product quality, bringing in variety and more innovation and building new sites. The company has 11 integrated consumer goods manufacturing and logistics facilities.

Consumer spends of ITC’s FMCG portfolio now stands at ₹32,500 crore. “The drivers of structural competitiveness unleashed by the ITC Next strategy reinforce our aspiration to be No.1 in this industry,” Puri told the shareholders.

Later at a press conference, Puri announced ITC’s entry into a new segment with brand ‘Right Shift’, targeting nutritional needs of people aged 40 years and above, adding further to its 100-plus launches in the FMCG segment post Covid.

A suite of products in the health and nutrition segment will be rolled out, starting from the next 7-10 days.

In paperboard and packaging, the company plans to build a new unit on the model of the Bhadrachalam factory in Telangana where the capacity is nearly saturated. It is now scouting for the location of a new unit which can be expanded over time.

Hotels

Many shareholders sought a timeline on the hotel business demerger and the growth plans of the business. Puri informed the process would be complete in the next six month and ITC would pursue an asset-right strategy, having opened 32 properties in the last two years.

Infotech

While the hotel demerger is in progress, questions were raised if ITC would also list the infotech business on the bourses. “Our focus is to build ITC Infotech into a very large engine of growth. Just like FMCG scaled up among our newer businesses, we want infotech to scale up. And that’s why investments are being made on capability building. Will continue to build on that,” Puri said.

Commenting on the IPO, he added, “As far as IPO is concerned there is no plan at the moment but these are certainly realms of possibility. But nothing on the anvil right now.”