ACI to invest Tk 60 crore in fruit drinks buisness

Advanced Chemical Industries PLC (ACI) has approved an additional equity investment of Tk 60 crore in its existing joint venture, ACI CO-RO Bangladesh Ltd, subject to approval from the regulatory authority concerned.

Along with this, ACI also gave the go-ahead to the formation of another joint-venture company with Japan’s ICHINEN Holdings Co Ltd.

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The decisions were approved at the company’s board meeting held on September 28, according to separate disclosures posted today on the Dhaka Stock Exchange website.

ACI CO-RO Bangladesh Ltd, a joint venture between ACI PLC and Danish fruit juice giant CO-RO A/S, was established as a greenfield investment in 2019 to cater to the market for fruit-based drinks under CO-RO’s brand and quality standards.

In 2024, ACI CO-RO Bangladesh inaugurated its first state-of-the-art factory in Narayanganj, Bangladesh.

In a separate decision at the same board meeting, ACI approved the formation of a joint-venture company named ACI-ICHINEN Bangladesh Ltd.

The new company will have an authorised capital of Tk 50 crore and a paid-up capital of Tk 15 crore.

ACI will hold 60 percent of the shares in the new venture, subject to approval from the authority concerned.

The joint venture will combine ACI PLC’s local business strength with ICHINEN’s global expertise across three key areas: human resource development and dispatch, motorcycle retail financing, and agriculture.

ACI shares fell slightly to Tk 182 today on the DSE.

In the first nine months of the 2025-26 fiscal year, the company’s turnover reached Tk 3,994 crore, up from Tk 3,442 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

In the same period, ACI’s profits rose to Tk 368 crore from Tk 327 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.