2. Sattva Conware CFS – Overview
Container Freight Station to serve the southern Indian port of Ennore
| Amount allocated to investment £5m |
| Amount invested to 31 March 2009 £2.1m |
| Ownership stake at 31 March 2009 90% |
| Sector Container Logistics |
| Location Ennore, Tamil Nadu, South East India |
| Progress to date Land acquisition phase |
The Eredene Group has committed up to £5 million for an 90% stake to develop and operate a new Container Freight Station (“CFS”) close to the rapidly expanding Indian port of Ennore in the southern State of Tamil Nadu. The Sattva Conware CFS is under development and is scheduled to start generating open storage business in 2010.
The investment is a second joint venture with the Sattva Business Group with which Eredene has already invested in a separate revenue producing CFS at Vichoor, which serves the nearby port of Chennai. www.sattva.in
The new CFS is located on a State Highway near the town of Ponneri to the north of Ennore with an initial are of 34 acres. The site will serve initially as a large-scale warehousing operation to meet existing demand for storage and transport. It is expected to be converted to a fully operational CFS and expanded to some 60 acres in time for the opening of Ennore's new container terminal scheduled for 2012.
Ennore Port, 24 km north of Chennai, was set up to ease the congestion at Chennai Port. Ennore Port began operations in 2001 and a tender process is currently underway - with the Eredene Group engaged in one of the bids - for the construction of a new, 1,000-metre container terminal with an estimated capacity of 1.5m 20 foot equivalent units (“TEUs”) per annum.
The Chennai-Ennore region is the centre of India’s automobile industry and a major manufacturing and light industry hub. Major global car manufacturers in the region include BMW, General Motors, Hyundai, Ford, Renault and Nissan.