Aditya Birla Group, the country’s third-largest conglomerate, is planning to more than double its turnover to $65 billion in the next five years, according to the chairman of the group.
“It was our ambition to become a Fortune 500 company and we were able to achieve this in 2008, two years ahead of the deadline we had set. Now, we want to become a $65 billion group by 2015,” Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said today. He was speaking at the annual conference of National Institute of Personnel Management.
The diversified group’s current turnover is at around $30 billion, with overseas operations contributing half of it. The ambitious target set by the group means it is likely to become more aggressive in overseas markets. It has already identified east Europe, South America, Southeast Asia and China as its target areas.
In February 2007, Hindalco, the metals flagship company of the Group, bought Canadian aluminium major Novelis for $6 billion and this purchase made it the world’s largest aluminium rolling company and one of the largest primary aluminium producers in Asia.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, Birla ruled out the possibility of the group’s return to power generation. “We have no such plans.” In 2006, the Group exited Rosa Power Supply Company, and subsequently in 2007, also bid farewell to Bina Power Supply Company.
He also said he had no plans to join the boards of Kesoram Industries and Century Enka of the B K Birla Group. Grandfather B K Birla is interested to hand over the reins of the two companies to Kumar Birla.
The group has interests in viscose staple fibre, cement, chemicals and textiles through its flagship, Grasim Industries.
The group is also the fourth largest producer of insulators and carbon black in the world, apart from being the 11th largest cement producer globally. Its information technology arms, Aditya Birla Minacs, is amongst the top 15 BPO companies worldwide.
