Hindujas to foray into drugs

Has acquired Betalact Pharma; to embark on an expansion plan.

The Hinduja group is getting into the pharmaceuticals business. Gulf Oil Corporation, the Hinduja group's Rs 409 crore lubricants, explosives and infrastructure business, has acquired a sick unit of Betalact Pharma from a consortium of banks and financial institutions.

The company is upgrading the plant to international standards to manufacture a slew of active pharmaceutical ingredients that go into manufacturing cardiological, antihistamine and analgesic drugs.

Confirming this, S Pramanik, managing director, Gulf Oil, told Business Standard: "We will be starting commercial production of pharmaceutical ingredients next month. We have spent close to Rs 25 crore on upgrading the facility." He, however, refused to comment on how much the Hinduja group planned to spend on its pharmaceutical project.

Based on the success of its first pharmaceutical ingredients unit, the company will embark on an expansion plan. It owns major properties in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata.

"India and China are emerging as major pharmaceutical product outsourcing hubs. We hope to cash in on the new business opportunities," Pramanik said. The company is in the process of obtaining government clearances for the project.

Gulf Oil has had a presence in speciality chemicals for some time and is a leading producer of explosives in India. It was formed after Gulf Oil India was merged with the Hyderabad-based Hinduja company IDL Chemicals.

The company is considered the chemical hub of the Hinduja group and has diversified into other businesses like mining services and building products. The company has manufacturing units in Hyderabad, Rourkela, Singrauli, Dhanbad, Udaipur and Visakhapatnam.