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Wilbur L Ross, has set March 2013 as a target date for wiping out textile manufacturer OCM India's accumulated losses. Textile manufacturer OCM India, which is 94%-owned by the US-based

global private equity investor Wilbur L Ross, has set March 2013 as a target date for wiping out its accumulated losses. “The accumulated losses so far are less than what W L Ross had

invested in the company,” Nitin Jain, OCM’s chief marketing officer, said, though refusing to quantify the losses. Ross had acquired the stake in OCM in 2007 by investing about $37 million.

In fact, OCM is the second major investment for the US PE firm in India after SpiceJet. However, the PE firm had sold about 30% of its stake in SpiceJet within two years of its investment in

June 2010, making a cool profit of about 58%. According to Jain, the target for March 2013 also includes generating internal accruals enough to meet the capital expenditure and branding

expenses of about Rs100 crore over the next five years. The former SK Birla group company had about Rs153 crore in revenues last year, which was a growth of about 33% compared to the

previous year. “The company had reported a turnaround with net profits,” Jain said. He, however, refused to quantify the profits. “The mandate from WL Ross is to continue to report similar

annual growth rates and generate adequate profits to meet the capital and marketing expenditure over the next five years,” he said. Though the industry has been talking about WL Ross’s plans

to exit the company after wiping out the accumulated losses, Jain refused to confirm it. “The investments of WL Ross are strategic and long term in nature. In fact, in companies like

International Textile Group and International Steel Group, WL Ross has remained involved for around 10 years. Though International Steel Group is now run and owned by Mittal, W L Ross is

still on its board.” As part of the revival plan, the company would expand the capacity of its Amritsar plant from about 5.5 million metres per annum to about 6.2 million metres by March

2013 and about eight million metres by March 2014.