Century Textiles and Industries is selling its paper business to JK Paper. Century Textiles is part of the BK Birla Group. The decision to sell the paper business is part of the group’s overall strategy to realign its businesses with those of the Aditya Birla Group.

The company’s pulp and paper division, called Century Pulp and Paper, was established in 1984. The division has rayon-grade pulp capacity of 31,320 tons per year, and writing and printing paper capacity of 1,97,800 tons. It also has a capacity of 36,000 tons of prime grade tissue paper per year.

JK Paper is one of the largest producers of paper products in India with a combined capacity of 4,55,000 tons per annum and the deal will help the company strengthen its domestic market position, It is currently the market leader in the branded copier paper segment and among the top two in coated paper and high-end packaging boards.

Century Textiles, established in 1897, began with a cotton textile mill in Mumbai and expanded to manufacturing cement, textiles, chemicals, pulp and paper products at plants located across India. A large portion of the proceeds will go towards retiring the debt of Century Textiles. In fact the transaction is expected to make the company completely debt-free.