Praj board approves raising up to $125 mln

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Distillation equipment maker Praj Industries Ltd. plans to raise up to $125 million for financing the company's expansion and acquisitions, it said in a statement.

The board, which met on Saturday, approved the fund raising plans, the company said in a news release late in the evening.

"The management will explore various options before finalising the means of raising such funds," it added.

For the quarter to June 2007, the company reported a huge jump in net profit at 283.5 million rupees ($7 million) compared with 84 million rupees year ago, while income from operations rose 72 percent to 1.38 billion rupees.

During the quarter it had forex gains of 170.6 million rupees.

"We can see that the benchmark is already higher when compared to the corresponding quarters in the previous financial year," Chairman Pramod Chaudhari said in the statement.

"The tempo for FY 2008 is in line with the growth plans," he added.