Rana Sugars is an agro-processing business that turns sugarcane and sugar beet into three products - sugar, ethanol, and electricity - under one roof. Founded in 1991 and operating since 1993 from its first mill in Amritsar, Punjab, it was the first company in India to process sugar beet at scale, a move that stretches its crushing season and helps cover fixed costs. Everything the company does follows a single recurring logic: use every part of the crop and every by-product so that when sugar prices swing, the distillery and power plant keep cash coming in. # Business segments Three engines fed by the same crop - a sugar business that anchors the supply chain, a distillery that turns molasses and juice into ethanol, and a cogeneration plant that burns the leftover bagasse for power - each designed to cushion the cyclicality of the one before it. ## 1. Sugar: the crop engine that feeds everything else **The sugar mills do more than make crystal sugar - they secure the cane and beet supply that the distillery and power plant depend on, and they carry the bulk of the group's fixed costs.** - **Three mills, two feedstocks** - the company runs cane-crushing facilities in Moradabad and Rampur (Uttar Pradesh) and a combined cane-and-beet plant in Amritsar (Punjab), with a total cane capacity of 20,500 tonnes per day and a beet capacity of 5,000 tonnes per day. The beet line, a first in India, lets the Amritsar mill keep running well after the cane season ends, so machinery and overheads are absorbed over more months. - **The raw material is regulated and local** - in Uttar Pradesh, the company can only buy cane from growers within its designated Cane Reservation Area, at a government-set Fair and Remunerative Price (₹355 per quintal for the 2025-26 season), and must follow a state-mandated indent system that controls who supplies what and when. This means the company competes on factory efficiency and farmer relationships, not on sourcing cheaper cane elsewhere. - **Farmer ties determine factory utilisation** - the company runs a cane-development programme that pushes nearly 100% high-yielding varieties, supplies seeds and insecticides at subsidised rates, and pays farmers on time, all to keep the mills full and the crop quality high. In FY25, the mills crushed 158.86 lakh quintals of cane and 16.44 lakh quintals of beet, producing 14.82 lakh quintals of sugar from cane and 1.23 lakh quintals from beet, with a cane recovery rate of 9.33%. - **Sugar is sold broadly, but the price is not free** - customers range from food-and-beverage and pharmaceutical companies to retail shoppers buying from supermarkets and convenience stores, yet the government controls how much sugar each mill can sell each month through a monthly release quota, adding a layer of unpredictability on top of the crop cycle. ## 2. Distillery: the ethanol hedge that smooths the sugar cycle **When sugar prices fall or cane supply surges, the distillery can switch to processing juice and B-heavy molasses into ethanol, turning a surplus crop into a government-backed revenue stream.** - **Two plants, multiple feedstocks** - the Punjab distillery at Laukha (225 kilolitres per day) can run on molasses, sugarcane juice or syrup, and grains, while the Uttar Pradesh plant at Belwara (100 KLPD, with plans to add multi-feed capability) currently produces ethanol only, giving a combined capacity of 335 KLPD as of FY25. In FY25, the segment produced and sold roughly 902 lakh bulk litres of spirit and ethanol. - **A captive buyer with a fixed price** - most ethanol goes to public-sector oil marketing companies under the central government's Ethanol Blending Programme, at prices the government sets, which makes the revenue line more predictable than sugar and less exposed to consumer demand swings. - **The effluent problem became an operating advantage** - both distilleries run concentrated-spent-wash-fired incineration boilers, a government-mandated treatment step that also lets the plants operate more than 340 days a year instead of shutting down for waste-disposal reasons. That high utilisation turns a compliance cost into a capacity multiplier. - **Less cyclical, but still tied to the farm** - ethanol in India comes mostly from sugarcane and maize, so a poor harvest or a policy shift on grain use can tighten feedstock supply, and the country's storage and distribution network for ethanol is still being built out. The segment is classified as "moderate-low" risk, the lowest of the three engines. ## 3. Cogeneration: the by-product power plant **Bagasse - the fibrous waste left after crushing cane - is burned to generate electricity that runs the mills and distilleries, with the surplus sold to state grids under long-term contracts.** - **102 megawatts of captive-plus-export capacity** - the first 5 MW unit was commissioned at Amritsar in 1993, and the company now has cogeneration plants at its sugar and distillery sites that collectively produce 102 MW, burning bagasse and other biomass. - **Sold under 20-year PPAs** - surplus power from the Moradabad, Rampur, and Buttar units is sold to Punjab and Uttar Pradesh state electricity corporations under agreements that run until April 2027, giving the segment a fixed-price, fixed-tenure customer. In FY25, the company sold 470.20 lakh units of power across both states. - **Export volumes flex with bagasse economics** - when bagasse prices rise, the company sometimes sells the raw bagasse instead of burning it, because generating power becomes less viable; in FY25, this logic reduced power sales in Uttar Pradesh, while in Punjab lower in-house steam consumption freed up fuel for the extended beet-crushing season, cutting external fuel purchases. The segment is classified as "high-moderate" risk because it sells to a single buyer - the state utility - in a regulated market. # Group structure and partners **Rana Sugars is a standalone public company controlled by the founding family, with no operating subsidiaries and a history of related-party dealings that have drawn regulatory attention.** - The company has no subsidiaries, joint ventures, or associates as of FY25, and no foreign collaborators or foreign equity participation. - It is run by the promoter family: Rana Ranjit Singh (Chairman) and his son Rana Veer Pratap Singh (Whole-Time Director in later years), with an earlier Managing Director, Rana Inder Pratap Singh, also from the family. The directors hold positions in other Rana Group entities including Rana Polycot, Rana Power, and Rana Energy. - Two wholly owned subsidiaries - Karimganj Biofuels and Buttar Biofuels - were incorporated in late 2020 for distilling and biofuel activities but never commenced operations, and the company sold Buttar Biofuels to promoter-group individuals at ₹10 per share between March and September 2021. - In FY23, the company guaranteed ₹25.16 crore in bank loans to RSL Distilleries Private Limited, a separate entity, creating a contingent liability. - In April 2025, the Enforcement Directorate seized company properties worth ₹22.02 crore under foreign-exchange laws for holding foreign exchange outside India; the company has stated it will appeal.