Bisleri will be 'a business run by professionals': Chairman Ramesh Chauhan

Packaged water major Bisleri International will be “a business run by professionals”, said Chairman Ramesh Chauhan on Monday. 

His statement comes after his daughter Jayanti Chauhan, vice-chairperson at Bisleri, posted on LinkedIn: “My father does not speak for me, I am my own individual.” She also advised people to “ignore” a news report based on her father’s comment that Jayanti would run the company with a professional team.

Last Friday, Tata Consumer Products (TCPL) in a stock exchange filing stated that it had ceased negotiations with Bisleri for its acquisition for potentially Rs 7,000 crore.

Chauhan told Business Standard that Angelo Dias, CEO at the company, is running the business and that he was no longer looking to sell a majority stake in the company.

 Last November, Chauhan had revealed that he was in discussion with TCPL to sell a majority stake in the company for Rs 6,000-7,000 crore, and that he expected the deal to be completed in 7-8 months.

If the deal had gone through, TCPL would have become the largest in the Indian fast-moving consumer goods space. The biggest deal in this space, so far, happened in April 2020, when Hindustan Unilever acquired Horlicks from GSK for Rs 3,045 crore.

At present, the bottled water major has over 122 operational plants and 4,500 distributors across India and in neighbouring countries. According to media reports, Bisleri is likely to clock sales of Rs 2,500 crore and earn a net profit of over Rs 200 crore in FY23. In FY22, TCPL’s revenue from operations stood at Rs 12,425 crore.

Bisleri was originally an Italian company set up by Felice Bisleri. It entered Mumbai in 1965 with its packaged drinking water brand. Four years later, Ramesh Chauhan and his brothers acquired the firm for Rs 4 lakh, according to market information.