Tata Chem buys balance Brunner pie for Rs 290 cr

Tata Chemicals today announced that it had acquired the remaining 36.5 per cent of the paid-up capital in the Brunner Mond group for Rs 290 crore through its wholly owned subsidiary.

In December 2005, the company had acquired 63.5 per cent of the paid-up capital from Wayland Investments and Barclays Bank for Rs 508 crore.

At that time, Prasad Menon, managing director, Tata Chemicals, had said the company would be making an mandatory offer to other shareholders to acquire the balance stake.

Post acquisition, Tata Chemicals is the world's third largest producer of soda ash after the Brussels-based Solvay and US -listed FMC Corp, respectively.

Prior to the acquisition, Tata Chemicals had a soda ash capacity of 0.9 million tonne. Brunner Mond has a capacity of 2 million tonne spread over four plants is the second largest producer of soda ash in Europe and the fifth largest globally.

Prior to the acquisition, Tata Chemicals had a presence in Asia and some countries in the Middle East. The Brunner Mond acquisition, apart from expanding its presence in Asia also gives it access to countries in Europe like Germany and France as well as Africa. Last year, the company had also picked up a 33 per cent stake in IMACID, Morocco.