Hindusthan National Glass and Industries Ltd (HNGL), India“s largest glass bottle maker, may finalize a strategic overseas acquisition in the pharmaceuticals sector in the next two-three months. The …
Hindusthan National Glass and Industries Ltd (HNGL), India“s largest glass bottle maker, may finalize a strategic overseas acquisition in the pharmaceuticals sector in the next two-three months. The acquisition is expected to cost HNGL INR 200-400 crore. An acquisition in the drug space, where we wanted to grow further, would not only help entering foreign markets, but also to have several new global clients, vice-chairman and managing director Mukul Somany said, declining to give details about the target firms and its key markets. We were looking for acquisition targets in the Middle East, other South-East Asian countries, and Europe, he said. To fund the acquisition, the company plans to sell a part of its 16.76% treasury stock to institutional investors, which is held by the issuing corporation and available for resale. As part of the increasing focus in pharma sector, HNGL has also recently raised its production capacity at its local factories. To cater to the growing demands from the pharma industry, we have now revamped our Bahadurgarh unit, which includes realigning of furnaces and installing new machinery and equipment for automatic inspection, shrink packing machines, etc., Somany said. HNGL“s revenue from the pharma sector was INR 166 crore in the last fiscal, and is expecting a turnover of INR 195 crore in the current fiscal that began 1 April. Being the leader in the glass bottle market with a domestic share of 55%, HNGL earns almost 95% of its revenue from its local business. Further growth in revenue should come from foreign markets, Somani said.