PTL announces start-up of 2 additional capacities in Thailand and 2 in its subsidiary at Turkey and announces Board approval to Invest in an additional Thin PET Film Line in Thailand

The Board of Directors' Meeting of Polyplex (Thailand) Plc (PTL), held on May 20th 2008, approved the Company's Audited Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statements for the fiscal year ended 31st March, 2008. The company reported a Consolidated Net Profit of Baht 813.55 million, a growth of 138% as compared with 2006-07.Consolidated Sales revenues have grown from Baht 4.7 billion in 2006-07 to Baht 6.4 billion in 2007-08, a growth of about 35%. As per company's dividend policy, to pay dividend at about 40% of consolidated net profits, a dividend of Baht 0.40 per share was proposed by the Board for approval at the Shareholders Meeting to be held on 29th July, 2008 for their consideration and approval. The dividend payout is more than double the dividend of Baht 0.17 per share paid for 2006-07.

The company also announced the start up of commercial operations of the Extrusion Coating film line in Thailand since April '08, this product being the first of its kind in the wide range of PET films offered by the Polyplex group in its product portfolio. The Metallizer expansion project in Thailand has also started commercial production in May‘08 and is expected to significantly increase the share of value added films in the sales portfolio, thereby adding to the top and bottom line growth. The company's 100% held subsidiary in Turkey, set up in 2004 has been contributing significantly to the consolidated profitability of the company since the last 2 years. The subsidiary has started commercial operations from its 2nd Thin PET film line and from its 2nd Metallized Film line in May'08, resulting in a doubling of capacity. Both the projects were commissioned on schedule and within the budgeted cost.

In the Anti Dumping investigation initiated by the Department of Commerce, USA on the basis of the petition launched by PET film manufacturers in USA against imports from China, Brazil, UAE and Thailand, the Preliminary determination was issued on April 28th '08, whereby the following duty rates against imports from China, UAE and Brazil have been notified:

China - 46.82% - 76.72%
Brazil - 28.72% - 44.36%
UAE - 2.45%
Thailand - 0%

It maybe observed that Polyplex (Thailand) Plc is the only company to get a zero % duty margin. The company is confident of maintaining the same result until the final determination. Due to the imposition of high dumping duties on imports into USA from China and Brazil, the company sees an opportunity in expanding its market share in the USA.

In another key decision, the Board of Director's have approved in principle, the proposal to Invest in an additional Thin PET Film line, Polyester Chips manufacturing facility and Metallised Film line in Thailand at a total estimated project cost of USD 70 million. The line to be installed is the largest line available and will result in economies on the operational front. Additional capacity will provide an opportunity to capture the high growth in the existing markets as well as new markets.

The company is also continuously considering and evaluating various investment opportunities to upgrade from being a preferred PET Film manufacturer to a preferred "Packaging Film" manufacturer offering not only PET films, but also various other grades of packaging films, besides several value added products. The CPP film project, approved by the Company's Board in October 2007 is under implementation and is expected to start operations by Q2 of fiscal year 2009-10.