Moser Baer has tied up with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Warburg Pincus for the equity required for additional capacities. The company is also in the process of tying up with its existing lenders Exim India, IDBI and SBI for the balance debt. The company has got shareholder approval for issuing fresh equity up to 9.9 million shares on a preferential basis.

The green field project will be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 729 crore with an annual capacity of 380 million CD-Rs and recordable digital versatile disks (DVD-Rs) per annum. The company's existing facility at Noida will be expanded to manufacture 380 million CD-Rs and DVD-Rs.

Moser Baer senior manager Rakesh Govil while confirming the plan said: ``Warburg Pincus contributed Rs 252.9 crore while the IFC has invested Rs 66.6 crore in the first tranche.'' Also, the IFC has contributed euro 25 million towards the debt.

The greenfield project and the expansions will enhance its manufacturing capacity of CD-Rs and DVD-Rs by 760 million per annum from the current capacity of 150 million. With this expansion, Moser Baer will become the third largest producer of CD-Rs and DVD-Rs in the world.

In July this year, the Moser Baer board approved share and warrant subscription agreements to enable Warburg Pincus to up their holding in the company to 17.09 per cent from 14.8 per cent the previous year.

Moser Baer started manufacturing 3.5 micro floppy diskettes (MFDs) in 1993 and went for a capacity expansion in 1996. The plant has a capacity of producing 140 million diskettes per annum. It was in 1999 that Moser Baer further diversified into the manufacture of CDs-R and DVD-Rs by setting up a 150-million capacity plant at Noida at a cost of Rs 324 crore. Commercial production at this plant began in September 1999 and it became fully operational by May early this year.