 "Gerdau acquires Kalyani's stake in Tadipatri steel plant")
Brazilian company Gerdau, a leading producer of long steel in the American subcontinent, on Monday announced majority ownership of its first plant in Asia at Tadipatri in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh and change of the unit's name from Kalyani Gerdau to Gerdau.
In 2007, Gerdau entered into a joint venture with Karnataka-based Kalyani Steels Limited to acquire SJK Steel Plant Limited with an equal partnership of 45% holding to form a joint venture. The remaining 10 % stake had been held by the previous owner and financial institutions. Gerdau acquired Kalyani's share and thus now holds a majority stake in the steel unit.
According to Gerdau director Visweswaran, the Brazilian company now holds about 99.5% stake in the Tadipatri unit. Speaking to Business Standard he said "With the expansion of the equity base, the shareholding of the FIs and the previous owner of the unit declined to 0.5%".
Other than having an installed capacity of 300,000 tonnes of special steels, mainly focused on the automotive market, the plant has recently started operations of its blast furnace, melt shop, sinter plant, power plant and rolling mill.
“This is a new and very important chapter in Gerdau’s history. As we begin our 112th year of business, the start of the production of special steel in India represents our expansion to an important country, with an impressive cultural richness, good economic prospective and very dedicated people," Gerdau’s CEO, André B. Gerdau Johannpeter, stated in a press release.
Arvind Mathur, the company's Executive Director in India seemed much positive about the ventuer and expressed that this move would pave way for Gerdau to come to India and cater to the domestic market to the benefit of its customers and improve over all standards in quality of steels manufactured in the country.
In 2007, Gerdau entered into a joint venture with Karnataka-based Kalyani Steels Limited to acquire SJK Steel Plant Limited with an equal partnership of 45% holding to form a joint venture. The remaining 10 % stake had been held by the previous owner and financial institutions. Gerdau acquired Kalyani's share and thus now holds a majority stake in the steel unit.
According to Gerdau director Visweswaran, the Brazilian company now holds about 99.5% stake in the Tadipatri unit. Speaking to Business Standard he said "With the expansion of the equity base, the shareholding of the FIs and the previous owner of the unit declined to 0.5%".
Other than having an installed capacity of 300,000 tonnes of special steels, mainly focused on the automotive market, the plant has recently started operations of its blast furnace, melt shop, sinter plant, power plant and rolling mill.
“This is a new and very important chapter in Gerdau’s history. As we begin our 112th year of business, the start of the production of special steel in India represents our expansion to an important country, with an impressive cultural richness, good economic prospective and very dedicated people," Gerdau’s CEO, André B. Gerdau Johannpeter, stated in a press release.
Arvind Mathur, the company's Executive Director in India seemed much positive about the ventuer and expressed that this move would pave way for Gerdau to come to India and cater to the domestic market to the benefit of its customers and improve over all standards in quality of steels manufactured in the country.