``The Chennai and Karnataka high courts have cleared the merger. The proposal is now lying in the Andhra Pradesh high court and it is likely to come up for hearing this month,'' a company official said.

The proposal has been pending for over a year now after Tata Tea took the merger decision.

Conscofe, in which Tata Tea had acquired 52.4 per cent stake in 1990, is one of India's coffee exporters with shipments totalling 4,500 tonnes annually.Conscofe sources its instant coffee products from ACL, also a Tata Tea subsidiary, while CLL is a leading plantation company in which Conscofe and its subsidiary Conscofe Investments Limited hold 34.5 per cent equity share capital.

Besides ACL and CLL, another Conscofe wholly-owned subsidiary VeerarajendraEstates Limited (VEL) is also proposed to be merged with Conscofe. The official said the company would emerge as a strong coffee conglomerate covering all facets of coffee industry once the merger was approved. Coffee Lands, incorporated in 1947, has over a period of time emerged as one of the leading coffee plantation companies in the country.

Currently, it has 1,148 hectares of estates in Chickamagalur and Hassan districts in Karanataka. Besides it has 113.6 hectares of tea estates in Chickamagalur.

Conscofe has been associated with Coffee Lands since its inception.ACL was incorporated in 1985 as a 100 per cent export-oriented units to manufacture instant coffee.

Tata Tea acquired 9.5 per cent ACL share in 1992 as part of its overall strategy to consolidate coffee interests of the group, which had already invested in Conscofe. As Conscofe has become a major coffee producer in the country with strong presence in roast and ground coffee segment, addition of instant coffee segment under its fold from ACMis a forward integration strategy.

Tata Tea's stakes in ACL was raised to 64.49 per cent in 1995 when it made a ``trend-setting'' offer.

Till then, ACL was primarily an exporter of bulk instant coffee used by multi-nations to formulate their blends. After the takeover, Tata Tea has added `International Tata Cafe' and `Malabar' as new brands to `Mysore Gold' to cater to Russian and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) markets.

Besides, ACL also produces instant coffee for domestic market for Conscofe under `Tata Cafe' and `Tata Kapi.'

Conscofe also owns 96 hectares of tea estate in Kodagu district in Karnataka besides growing pepper and cardamom in its coffee estates. A sizeable quantity of these commodities are exported.

Conscofe also grows orange, paddy, cocoa and minor crops such as arecanuts.It also has three coffee curing works with a total capacity of 35,000 tonnes per annum, which 20 per cent of the country's Total curing capacity.Once the merger is approved, it could become a leadingplayer in the coffee market in entire Asia, the official said.