Rajeev Ranjan Vederah of Ballarpur Industries Wins RISI's 2011 Asian CEO of the Year Award

NEW DELHI and BOSTON, May 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Mr. Rajeev Ranjan Vederah, Managing Director of  Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), part of the US$ 4 billion Avantha Group, has been selected as the Asian CEO of the Year for 2011 by RISI, the leading information provider for the global forest products industry. The award will be presented to Mr. Vederah at RISI's 12th Asian Pulp & Paper Outlook Conference in Shanghai, China to be held on June 13-15, 2011.

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Speakers from the sector's leading companies and associations, including APRIL, McKinsey, Japan Paper Association, Singapore Press Holdings Ltd and Nestle will be represented at the RISI Conference.

Mr. Vederah was chosen as the RISI Asian CEO of the Year by a group of investment analysts and portfolio managers covering the forest products industry. The analysts responded to a survey organized by RISI and the criteria for nomination included leadership, vision and strategic accomplishment.

Mr. Vederah was chosen as the winner due to BILT's healthy financial performance and its exploration in upstream development (including forest plantation abroad). Mr. Vederah commented, "I am honoured to receive this award. This is also a recognition of BILT's leadership position in the region's pulp and paper industry."

Mr. Vederah has been associated with the BILT for 25 years in various positions of increasing responsibility. He has worked with several paper companies over a period of 40 years, including Sinar Mas Pulp & Paper India. Mr. Vederah has been ranked in the top twenty of RISI's Power List for two consecutive years in 2009 and 2010. He was also the President of the Indian Paper Manufacturers Association from 2005 to 2006. Mr. Vederah holds a Bachelor of Technology (Chemical) from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and a Master of Science from the University of Ashton, UK.

RISI's Asian CEO of the Year Award was inaugurated in 2008. RISI organizes four regional CEO awards each year in Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America, which are handed out to the winners at the regional RISI conferences. In addition, the Global CEO of the Year award is presented at the PPI Awards event, which will be held in Brussels on November 15 this year.

About the RISI Asian Conference

The 12th RISI Asian Pulp & Paper Outlook Conference will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai, China on June 13-15, 2011. The conference will address some of the key issues in today's Asian pulp and paper market. HP, ColorLok, Voith, BTG, Kadant, Ashland and Obeikan Paper Industries have signed on as official sponsors for the event. Conference programs and registration details are available online at: www.risi.com/asiaconf.

About RISI

RISI is the leading information provider for the global forest products industry. The company works with clients in the pulp and paper, wood products, timber, biomass, tissue, nonwovens, printing and publishing industries to help them make better decisions.

Headquartered in Boston, MA, RISI operates additional offices throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. More information can be found at www.risi.com.

About Ballarpur Industries Limited  

Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), part of the US$ 4 billion Avantha Group, is India's largest manufacturer of paper, focussed in the wood-free and fine papers segment. BILT's subsidiaries include BILT Graphic Paper Products Limited (BGPPL); Sabah Forest Industries (SFI), Malaysia's largest pulp and paper company; and BILT Tree Tech Limited (BTTL), which runs BILT's farm forestry programme in several states in India.

BILT and BGPPL have six manufacturing units across India, which give the company geographic coverage over most of the domestic market. The company has a dominant share of the high-end coated paper segment in India. It accounts for over 51% of the coated wood-free paper market, an impressive 78% of the bond paper market and nearly 37% of the hi-bright uncoated free sheet market, besides being India's largest exporter of coated and uncoated paper. BILT's acquisition of SFI in 2007 was a watershed event – it was the first overseas acquisition by an Indian paper company, it transformed BILT into a major regional player, and elevated BILT's ranking among the global top 100.

Contact:
Jennifer Plourde
Associate Marketing Manager
RISI
4 Alfred Circle
Bedford, MA 01730 USA
Tel: +1.781.734.8917
[email protected]

SOURCE RISI

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