Eyes 20% growth in cryogenic engineering business in 2010-11
Inox India Ltd, India's largest cryogenic engineering company and part of the $ 2 billion Inox Group having diversified interests in chemicals, engineering and entertainment, has picked up a majority stake in US-based Cryogenic Vessel Alternatives (CVA) - the world’s largest manufacturer of cryogenic transportation equipment.
Sources privy to the development pegged the deal size at about $ 140 million (approx Rs 660 crore).
"We now have a controlling stake in the company much above 50 per cent," said Parag P Kulkarni, director and chief executive officer of Inox India Ltd. He did not divulge further details on deal or its size saying that the two companies had signed a confidentiality agreement.
Kulkarni, however, informed that the deal has been funded from internal accruals mostly with a small amount of acquisition debt. Inox India had posted revenues worth Rs 250 crore in 2008-09 fiscal and hopes to register a 7-8 per cent growth during this financial year, Kulkarni informed.
Cryogenic Vessel Alternatives, with revenues of approximately US $60 million last year, has manufacturing and repair facilities for cryogenic transportation equipment at Mont Belvieu, Texas, USA, with presence across Canada, China and Turkey. Chris Carr, Hector Villarreal and Dean Corbin, erstwhile owners of CVA, will continue to play leadership roles and leverage the significant geographical market and product synergies resulting from this new partnership.
While Inox India leads the market in stationary storage tanks,CVA is a specialist in large cryogenic transport tanks and mobile oil and gas field pumping units. This complementary market leadership, know-how and product range between the two companies will strengthen their current positions around the world, a company release claimed. "We plan to enter the US markets with our entire spectrum of offerings and are expecting at least 20 per cent growth during the 2010-11 fiscal through tapping of newer markets.", Kulkarni said.
Inox India is already present across 100 countries and its wide product range is used in various industries such as industrial gases, LNG distribution, CryoBio medical and scientific research in space, nuclear and superconductivity.It has three modern facilities in India spread over 17 acres and covered factory area of 25500 square meters, located at Kalol, near Vadodara, Kandla, Ghandhidham which is a port side SEZ and Silvassa.
Inox Group has four companies including Gujarat Flurochemicals Ltd (GFL), Inox Leisure Ltd, Inox Air Products Ltd, and Inox India Ltd of which the former two are listed entities. GFL, the flagship company of the group, has a market capitalisation close to $1 billion, gross fixed assets of $ 225 million and net worth of $ 250 million.
