Courtaulds Packaging (India) Ltd, which makes laminated tubes, was a joint venture between Indal and Courtaulds Holdings B.V. of the UK, which was the majority shareholder.

The divestment involves selling of 4.9 million shares to Betts group and is subject to obtaining of requisite Government approvals. The price of the sale could not be ascertained.

According to company sources, Indal had been considering selling its stake to Courtaulds Holdings for quite some time now. A review of the joint venture operations was being undertaken by the aluminium major to attain its long-term objective of phasing out extra costs and improve margins.

However, Indal found a ready buyer in the Betts group since it has recently acquired Courtaulds' laminatesbusiness worldwide.

According to a company statement, Indal decided to get out of the joint venture "to focus on its core business of manufacture of aluminium sheet, foil and alumina chemicals."

The Courtaulds Packaging unit at Goa was set up in 1994-95 for the manufacture of laminated tubes and its products have been accepted by leading toothpaste manufacturers in India.

The Courtaulds divestment is Indal's second major divestment in the past one year. In 1998-99, Indal sold its entire shareholding in Indal Electronics Ltd (IETL) to AT&S, a leading player in the European printed circuit board market for a consideration of Rs 54 crore. This joint venture had limited synergy with the company's core business and divestment in favour of a company with global market presence in the printed circuit board business was considered appropriate.

Insofar as its other joint ventures are concerned, the aluminium major is working on strengthening its position in Annapurna Foils where it has a 26.5 per cent stake.Indal Hydro Extrusions, a 50:50 joint venture between Indal and Hydro Aluminium, is also developing strategies for itself and Orissa Extrusions Ltd, another joint venture of Indal. Orissa Extrusions, which is a joint venture between Indal, Hydro Aluminium and Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol), has suffered of late because of a downturn in the aluminium extrusions market.

Utkal Alumina is one of the most recent joint ventures of Indal in which it has a 20 per cent stake. The almost Rs 4000-crore project has made considerable progress with respect to various approvals.