Pigment maker Heubach plans Indian acquisition

The Rs 150 crore Heubach Colour Pvt Ltd (HCPL), the Indian arm of global pigment major, Heubach Group of Germany, is eyeing acquisitions in India and also looking for partners to get into joint ventures to strengthen its presence here.

Heubach Group is a global leader in the manufacturing and development of technologies for pigments.

"The Indian market seems very encouraging for us, especially the paint and ink industry, due to the proliferation of the organised sector in every field. We have started taking this market seriously and so we require to have strategically located larger production base. We have already initiated talks with certain companies suitable to our portfolio and policies," said Ravi Kapoor, managing director of the company last week.

The takeover or joint venture in near future will increase the share of revenue from the domestic market, he said, indicating that an acquisition may take place as early as March this year, denying to divulge the name of the company with which Heubach is in an advanced stage of talks.

The HCPL has its manufacturing facility at Ankleshwar in Gujarat, commissioned in 1994. This unit caters to the needs of paint, ink and plastic industries. At present, HCPL has manufacturing capacity of 7,000 tonne per annum of which over 95 per cent is being exported across the globe.

Currently, HCPL produces mainly green and blue pigments at its present manufacturing facility equipped with Dioxin laboratory. The takeover move may expand its portfolio.

"We are not going for big shopping in the market but we are eyeing select companies with clean books and preferably one that is environment-friendly. Our discussion with one company is in the final stages for a 51 per cent stake. The share of the domestic market will change once the deal is finalised," said Kapoor.

It is learnt that the takeover drive will be funded from internal accruals. "We have an impressive financial track record of Indian operations and the company believes in self funding," said Kapoor.