About The Paper Products Limited (PPL):
PPL is India's leading manufacturer of primary consumer packaging with annual gross sales at about Rs.450 crores, and net capital employed of Rs. 200 crores.

PPL is the pioneer and the technological and market leader in Flexible packaging and Labelling. The Flexibles range is wide, diversified and sophisticated, encompassing the packaging needs of almost the entire range of FMCG segments including personal products, personal wash, laundry, foods, sauces, beverages, bakery products, spices, chocolates and confectionery, dairy, etc.; and also for seeds, specialized chemicals, electronics and many other specific specialized uses including anti-spurious packaging.

The labelling products range includes latest leading edge technologies - Shrink sleeves, Heat transfer labels, Pressure sensitive labes, Metallised labels and Wrap around labels.

PPL is also into manufacturing of specialized cartons and cartoning systems, manufacture of poly films, specialzed barrier metallising and high-end application extrusion coating. The company's packaging machines division enables it to offer complete packaging solutions to the customers.

PPL mainly caters to the premium segment of packaging and its customers profile includes HLL, Nestle, GSK, Cadbury, Britannia, Coca-cola, Perfetti, Marico, P&G, Amway, Emami, Dabur, Eveready, Godrej Sara Lee, etc. etc.

PPL's manufacturing facilities are located at Thane, Silvassa and Hyderabad. Today, PPL is a joint venture with the global packaging major - Huhtamaki Oyj, Finland who hold about 59% of the equity capital. Huhtamaki is the world's sixth largest consumer packaging multinational.

More at our web site: www.pplpack.com

Q4 - 2003 Results:
The Net sales for the fourth quarter (OCT - DEC) of 2003 are at Rs. 979 million as compared to Rs. 834 million in the fourth quarter of 2002. This represnts a 17% growth in sales. The profit before tax is Rs. 102 mn as compares to Rs. 83 mn in the Q4 of the previous year. The Profit after Tax is Rs. 87 mn as compared to Rs. 61 million in the Q4 of 2002.

Year - 2003
The Net sales for the Year-03 is Rs 3826 mn as compared to Rs 3222 mn in the Year 2002. This represents a 19% growth in sales. The Profit before tax for the year-03 is Rs 379 mn as compared to Rs 358 mn in the previous year. The Profit after tax for the year -03 is Rs 279 mn as compared to Rs 251mn for the previous year. The EPS for the year -03 is Rs 22.27 as compared to Rs 20.06 for the year-02.
The top line represents a robust growth of 19% in difficult market conditions. The company's innovation programme, NASP - "New Applications Structures and Products", continued to create new business. The robust growth also represents the ever-growing confidence of customers in PPL's commitment to meet their ever-demanding needs for focused service, good value and innovation for growth.

Proposed Dividend: For the year 2003, the board has proposed a one time dividend of Rs. 10/- per share in addition to the normal dividend of Rs. 5/- per share (previous year dividend - Rs. 5/- per share). The total outflow on proposed dividend payments including the dividend distribution tax will be Rs. 212.157 mn.

Capex Plans:
The company is embarking on major Capex plans for the year 2004. Two strategic capex plans are slated for the year 2004. The first being expansion of capacities in the Hyderabad plant. Secondly, balancing of capacities as also capex to enable new product development is being planned in Silvassa. The expansion in Hyderabad is to be in place in the last quarter of 2004. The capex plans in Silvassa would be in two phases - one to be completed in quarter two of year 2004 and the second in quarter three of year 2004. The capex plans of the company in the year 2004 would entail an expenditure of about Rs 450 mn.

Going Forward:
The robust top line growth, in the year, gives confidence for the new year 2004. We expect a robust growth of 12%+ for the year 2004.
The volume growth also enables us to step away from business which is becoming relatively lower end in terms of quality needs, and still have a large market for growth.

The stabilisation of input prices, though still higher than the prices prevailing in the last year, gives hope of stable margins in the New Year 2004.

Contact Person:

Mr. M K Srinivasan Senior Vice President - Finance Phone Numbers: Off: Direct: 2534 50 24, Board: 2534 3691                                 Mobile: 98211 35774