In his first interview after taking over as Bilt's managing director, Gautam Thapar told The Financial Express that net profit target for the year ending June 2000 has been set at Rs 32 crore. He expects the turnover to cross Rs 1,000 crore next year.

Thapar said a fresh capital investment plan of Rs 200 crore has been drawn out for the next three years. This includes raising the installed capacity of Bilt's paper capacity by over 50,000 tonnes.

Thapar said the trifurcation of Bilt into three separate companies -- paper, chemicals and investment -- has been completed and the balance sheets and annual reports for the year ended June 30, 1999 would be made separately for each company.

Thapar said the group also planned to raise over Rs 100 crore from the divestment of its equity holding in Maersk Shippin Co and two jointventures in Thailand and Malaysia.

Bilt holds 16 per cent equity stake in Phoenix, the Thai joint venture, 66 per cent in the Malaysian joint venture and 20 per cent in Maersk Shipping.Thapar said the focus in future would be purely on paper. "Now that everything has been cleaned up in the company, our focus is very clear. We believe there is growth in the paper business. We are the market leaders. Our strength lies in our manufacturing, distribution and diversified products range", he said, adding that the market is "firm and looking up" though there it is not `great' as yet.

However, Thapar ruled out the possibility of divesting Bilt's stake in other group companies.

Thapar said Bilt would maintain a debt-equity ratio of 1:1 in the years to come. The company's post trifurcation debt burden has come down to Rs 800 from over Rs 1,050 crore while the equity base will be Rs 60 crore.Admitting that Bilt had lost focus in the early 1990s and expanded into certain non-core activities, Thapar said arationalisation exercise has been initiated even in the core area of paper manufacturing.

"The company intends to exit from certain segments of writing and printing paper and has renewed efforts to increase its brand image. In the next two-three years, we will have five or six umbrella brands and then have their further segmentation", he said.

Thapar also ruled out the possibility of entering into strategic alliances or joint ventures in the writing and printing paper segment, in which the company maintains a dominant position.

He, however, indicated that the company may look at strategic alliances or partnerships with international major in the industrialsegment.