 "Tata Consumer Products MD and CEO Sunil D'Souza")
Tata Consumer Products Ltd is looking for companies it can acquire to grow internationally, its chief executive officer (CEO) Sunil D'Souza said in an interview with the Financial Times (FT) on Tuesday. He said that the company is in talks with several companies but is primarily looking to acquire a brand with global reach.
D'Souza said that the company currently has around $300 million in cash on its balance sheet.
In the last year, Tata Consumer has ceased talks on at least two major deals. One was the acquisition of Bisleri, and the other was to reportedly acquire Haldiram's. Media reports suggested that Haldiram wanted a valuation of $10 billion, which the Tata Group disagreed with.
Tata Consumer already has several popular food and beverage brands in India. These include Tata Salt, Himalayan water and Tetley tea. D'Souza told FT that the entry point in the international market is tea or coffee.
"Once you build distribution and relationships, then you can plug in various categories," he was quoted in the report as saying.
However, D'Souza hinted that the company will not acquire in the sector where there is already fragmentation. He said that it poses a risk of collateral damage during the fight of market "giants". Notably, many smaller companies in the sector have been gaining interest from big players like Britannia and Hindustan Unilever.
He said that due to this reason, the company is not looking to enter the market of fizzy drinks which is dominated by PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. Recently, the war in this category was intensified with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance relaunching Campa via its retail arm.
D'Souza said the company is also not looking to enter the processed snacks market.
