ITC chairman Y.C. Deveshwar in Calcutta on Friday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta, July 23: ITC plans to spend Rs 23,000 crore over the next 7-10 years across businesses, company chairman Y.C. Deveshwar said.

The cigarette-to-hotel firm will invest Rs 8,000 crore in the FMCG business, Rs 9,000 crore in hotels and Rs 6,000 crore in paper and paperboards.

“The biggest tussle we have is how to spend cash to grow bigger. Our debt is low. Even if we borrow Rs 16,000-17,000 crore, the debt-equity ratio will still be at 1:1,” Deveshwar said at the 99th annual general meeting of the company here today.

Deveshwar, 63, is on the ITC board from 1994, and he became chairman in 1996. Today, executive director Anup Singh retired after completing his term at 65. There is no retirement age for ITC directors. The shareholders decide the term.

Asked if he would be on the board to oversee the massive investment, Deveshwar remained evasive.

The ITC chief needs to seek shareholders’ approval for another term. His present five-year tenure ends in 2012.

The diversification undertaken by ITC during Deveshwar’s tenure is already showing results.

The food business, part of the FMCG portfolio that includes cigarettes and personal care, would turn around this year. The company is restructuring its safety match business — it has closed its Chennai plant, while keeping open the Bengal facility.

Hotels expansion

Deveshwar said ITC was keen to build hotels across the country in many categories, but the availability of land was a hurdle.

In Calcutta, it is building another hotel next to the existing ITC Sonar. The 550-room hotel, built at an investment of Rs 700 crore, is expected be ready in three years.

ITC’s “trade investments” in two rival companies — EIH and Hotel Leelaventure — are giving handsome gains. It has made a notional gain of Rs 550 crore from a 14.98 per cent stake in EIH, majority owned by the Oberoi family, and Rs 50 crore from a 10.68 per cent stake in Leela.