Deco group to come out with IPO for ceramic expansion

To catch on with the booming market, Morbi's Deco group, one of India's top 10 leading manufacturers of vitrified floor and luster wall tiles, is planning to go public in the next few months.

The company is all set to file the prospectus by late October to Sebi with an aim to raise Rs 65-90 crore for further expansions of its ceramic business.

The group's overall turnover stood at Rs 60-65 crore in 2005-06 and aims to reach over a three-fold increase at Rs 225 crore in 2007.

Girish Pethapara, chairman of Deco group said, "The funds that we plan to raise is for expansion of our ceramic segment. This includes expansion of our existing vitrified files unit in Morbi. We aim to file the prospectus by October 29."

The plant produces 6,000 sq feet (tiles) per day and the company aims to double it to 12,000 sq feet. The investment for this will be to the tune of Rs 20 crore, which includes marketing of the product. The group has eight outlets across the country, which will be raised to twenty in one year. The overall market of vitrified tiles in India is about 1.2 lakh sq m per day and is growing about 25-30 per cent every year.

"To cater to the energy needs of the Morbi unit, we also plan to set up a wind farm project in Kutch. We are in talks with Suzlon for purchasing the machines," Pethapara said. The wind farm project is estimated to cost Rs 25 crore.

IDBI is the company's merchant bankers and the face value is expected to be Rs 65-85 per share. The group has also chalked out plans to set up an aluminium composition panel project and a part of the funds raised will be used in this.

"The growing infrastructure needs has spurred the need for aluminium composition panel mainly used in centrally air-conditioned commercial structures. The project cost of this unit will be about Rs 20-25 crore," said Pethapara.

Also, the company has recently made a foray into the lucrative Indian CFL market by announcing the launch of its Rema range of compact fluorescent lamps.

"Currently, we produce 20,000 pieces of CFL lamps and aim to reach one lakh mark in 2007. We aim to garner over Rs 100 crore sales from this sector," he said.

The company also aims to foray into manufacturing of switches, circuit breakers, fans and optically compensate bend (OCB). The electrical and electronic appliances sector in India is estimated at Rs 60-70,000 crore and we aim to explore more into it, he added.