EREDENE CAPITAL PLC

JOINT VENTURE WITH APEEJAY SURRENDRA GROUP TO DEVELOP A LOGISTICS PARK TO SERVE HALDIA PORT

The Eredene Group is investing up to INR 420m (£5.25m) for a 50% stake in a joint venture company, Apeejay Infra-Logistics Pvt Ltd, to develop a large integrated Logistics Park in Haldia, West Bengal, which is a growing trading port and commercial hub for the East Indian city of Kolkata. Construction of the facility is underway.

Eredene has made the investment with Apeejay Surrendra Group, the owners of Typhoo Tea and a global Indian business which employs more than 40,000 people in real estate, tea, hospitality, shipping and retail. Apeejay Surrendra is Eredene’s investment partner and Eredene has an exclusive agreement to source new projects with them in nine States in Eastern India. This was Eredene’s first co-investment with Apeejay Surrendra Group (www.apeejaygroup.com).

Haldia, a port on the confluence of the Haldi and Hoogly Rivers opening onto the Bay of Bengal and 90 kilometres downstream from Kolkata, is one of West Bengal's fast emerging industrial centres and is in the process of being designated a Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemicals Investment Region. It boasts Tata Chemicals, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Hindustan Unilever and a host of other oil, chemical and industrial plants.

The Logistics Park will provide dedicated space for storage, packaging, transport, light processing workshops, offices and other key support services to Haldia's 388 industrial units. The site borders a National Highway and a State road and is seven kilometres from Haldia Port. It is zoned for industrial use by the Haldia Development Authority (www.hdaindia.com).  The boundary wall round the 90-acre plot is almost finished and up to 15 acres of open storage are being surfaced. A total of 130,000 sqaure feet of warehousing is due for completion in 2010.Marketing has started and the Logistics Park is planned to be ready for open storage cutomers in 2010.

Abdul Wahid, an experienced manager of logistics operations, is CEO of Apeejay Infra-Logistics which will build and operate the Logistics Park. He is also managing the Eredene Group's second joint venture with Apeejay Surrendra - a Logistics Park to serve the Kalinganagar industrial complex in Orissa State.