United Phosphorus Ltd (UPL), the country’s largest pesticide maker, is aiming at a 15 per cent growth in topline this financial year.
“Last year was very good as our revenues grew 33 per cent — half of it organically and the rest from the two acquisitions that we have made in Brazil. We will be focusing on business consolidation this year,” Jay Shroff, chief executive officer of UPL, said here on Wednesday.
Shroff said that margins were going to be OK’ because the company will be in a position to pass on the rising input costs to the consumer on the back of the profitability at the farm level. The company’s ongoing share buyback plan only reflects this confidence on the future business growth, according to him.
The company has started buying back the shares at Rs 150 per share three days ago, after it received an approval from Sebi on Friday, he said, adding the company proposed to spend about Rs 300 crore to buy 19 million, he said.
About 75 per cent of the revenues of the company, which crossed the Rs 10,000-crore mark as a group this year, comes from its global operations and the remaining from India.
The company is launching three new insecticide products, including two in collaboration with Japanese company Ishihara Sngyo Kaisha Limited (ISK). It is also planning to introduce Bt cotton seed based on the BG2 technology through the group company, Advanta. It launched a patented insecticide product owned by ISK on Wednesday.