Dishman Arabia, the 50:50 joint venture between Dishman Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals and Saudi Arabia based Takamul, is bullish on touching a turnover of $50 million within two years of commencement of production at its JV plant in Riyadh.
The plant will go onstream in end 2010 and will produce 300 tonnes per month (tpm) disinfectants for hospitals and hygeine disinfectants for hotels and restaurants, JR Vyas, managing director of Dishman Pharma said. It will also produce low cost commercial disinfectants for Saudi Aramco, leading oil producer in the region.
Vyas said that "Aramco would be picking up part of its requirement from us" adding that it was too early to comment on the volumes. An in-principle tie up has been done.
Dishman Pharma was also in talks with Aramco earlier in 2008 to form a JV in order to tap the $650 million disinfectants market in the Gulf region. Vyas, however, asserted that they were not forming a joint venture. The presence of water in oil exploration leads to bacteria formation. Besides, there is conversion of nitrogen to nitric acid. Dishman proposes to develop special disinfectants that will clean them up, according to Vyas. Dishman Pharma already supplies disinfectants to oil companies in India. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), which requires about 10,000 tonnes of disinfectants every year, also sources a considerable part of it from Dishman.
"The net investment required in the plant is around $10 million, of which both Takamul and we have invested $ 2million each, while the remaining $6 million is commercial debt. Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) has provided $5 million soft loan to the JV.", Vyas informed.