Alok Textiles has privately placed 87.77 lakh shares of Rs 10 each with the CDF at a premium of Rs 7.50 per share aggregating Rs 15.36 crore. The company has also placed 365,700 equity shares with TCFC Finance Ltd at a premium of Rs 7.50 per share aggregating Rs 0.64 crore leading to an equity participation of 1.55 per cent, said Alok Textiles managing director Dilip Jiwarjika while addressing a press conference.

The company, with an authorised equity capital of Rs 50 crore, will find its debt-equity ratio being reduced to 1.14 due to fresh equity infusion, Jiwarjika said.

"While the textile industry in general is caught in the grip of recession, garment exports from the country have been growing. Alok Textiles has identified this niche and has been maintaining a good growth record for over the last few years," said Sanjaya Kulkarni, director 20th Century FinanceCorporation, advisor to CDF.

As the company has completed its entire expansion programme, the fund has the advantage of not dealing with the risk management and can solely concentrate on the growth strategies, said Philip Stephenson, Chairman & CEO, International equity partners, promoters to CDS.

While Alok Textiles has been maintaining a low-profile policy, its scrip has of late been attracting the interest of investors. It was hovering around Rs 12.50 to Rs 16 and has now touched a level of Rs 18 recently in sharp contrast to textile scrips' downward movement at the bourses, an analyst with a leading broking firm said.

The growth could be an offshoot of a focus on the knitted fabric exports which has recorded a phenomenal growth in the last year despite overall sluggishness in the textile exports, the analyst added.

Order-driven strategy and composite manufacturing facilities are the key factors to growth, said Jiwarjika. The company's joint venture with Austrian-based Grabal for embroideredproducts is expected to contribute more to the bottomline as embroidered fabrics are increasingly becoming popular overseas, he said. Grabal holds 15 per cent in the joint venture called Grabal Alok Exports Ltd.

During the period between 1996-1999, Alok Textiles has reported a compounded annual growth rate of 27 per cent 28 per cent for profits and sales respectively. For the year 1997-98, it had a turnover of Rs 198 crore and a net profit of Rs 10 crore. It expects to post a turnover of Rs 250 crore during the current fiscal.