Answering shareholders queries at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the company here on Friday, TNPL chairman and managing director N Narayanan said that the company was working towards maximising its returns. While realisations were improving in the domestic market, the increasing demand for bagasse-based paper in the export market would lower interest outgo considerably, the CMD said.

TNPL had taken a foreign currency loan to the tune of $75 million in euro DM, yen and dollar denominations. The downward movement of euro DM versus the dollar and of yen against the dollar had helped in reducing the outstanding amount to $62 million. While acknowledging that the foreign currency loan would prove to be volatile on account of rupee fluctuations, Narayanan said that the interest payable was levied at 6 per cent. A depreciation of the rupee to the extent of 5 per cent was currently manageable as the amount would still show against a domestic loan.

To eliminate long-term currency loan risks, the company has pre-paid Rs 15 crore due for payment in 2014 and is making arrangements to pay back more in the current year.

The company's debt-equity ratio, which was 1:1, had come down to 0.9 and is expected to fall further.

Meanwhile, the company is planning around Rs 50 crore investment for the upgradation of the first paper machine. This, along with other debottlenecking, will allow capacity expansion from the current 1.8 lakh tonnes a year to 3.6 lakh tonnes.

TNPL was also becoming a recognised leader in bagasse-paper technology.

Recently, the company had completed consultancy work for erection and commissioning Quena Newsprint's plant in Egypt.

The company would also be introducing new products. A versatile multi-purpose, cut-size packed product for office use with the brand name of TNPL-OS 2000 will be launched shortly. Another product, Ultra Excel Maplitho with 90 per cent brightness, will be introduced for high-end multi-colour printing applications.