Our Corporate Bureau

Kolkata, December 9

SHAREHOLDES of ITC Ltd have overwhelmingly approved the merger of ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Ltd, ITC's speciality paperboard manufacturing subsidiary, with the parent company.

At the poll conducted on December 7 under the court - appointed chairmanship of Dr. Tapas Kumar Banerjee, the resolution for amalgamation of ITC Bhadrachalam with ITC Ltd polled 16,27,85,294 votes or around 97.6 per cent of the total votes polled.

The result of the poll was officially announced Sunday.

The poll was conducted after the general meeting of the tobacco major at which ITC chairman YC Deveshwar strongly justified the move arguing that the merger would immensely benefit both the companies.

The move to merge ITC Bhadrachalam with ITC is aimed at creating synergy with the latter's fast moving consumer goods business, as well as to expand its non-tobacco business in view of the sharply dwindling cigarette volumes in the country.

"Not only the EPS (earning per share) of ITC is expected to increase significantly, but the parent company will also get loss benefit that ITC Bhadrachalam had incurred in the past", Mr Deveshwar told shareholders before the resolution for merger was put to vote.

He said the merger would help Bhadrachalam compete with international players in the globally competitive environment. "Bhadrachalam would not have been able to compete with international players. Now they will get the help of ITC's money and infrastructure facilities", he said.