Insecticides scouts for foreign acquisitions

Insecticides India Ltd (IIL), an agrochemicals manufacturing company, is negotiating with global corporations to acquire their brand rights for India, according to managing director Rajesh Aggarwal.

“Many MNCs are losing interest in generic products because of the low margins. We see an opportunity in that segment. It is difficult to comment at this juncture but it (brand acquisitions) can click anytime,” he told Business Standard.

Aggarwal said the company was looking at brand acquisitions across the board, including fungicides, weedicides, insecticides and herbicides. “We are open to all areas and can invest in any brand.

The size of the brand doesn’t matter. We are able to recover the money from a brand in two-three years. What we look at is getting a better foothold in the farmer’s household,” he said. Apart from the company’s inorganic growth plans, Aggarwal said, the company was working on a collaboration for one brand (a patented fungicide product), which was expected for an announcement by May this year.

The zero-debt company currently has 95 products in its basket. As part of Phase I, it would launch seven more molecules — Metro, Shark, Rambo, Super Star, Victor Gold in the insecticides category and a fungicide called Dynamite Plus - this financial year.

On the Monocil brand, which IIL acquired from Mumbai-based Nocil Limited yesterday, Aggarwal said the company was planning to commence manufacturing of the monocrotophos technical (Monocil) at its Dahej facility in Gujarat from this June.

“Monocil is a big brand for us. If you look at the monocrotophos market, it is around 10 million litres annually. We are targeting 1 million litres, to begin with. And, I believe it can take up to 20 per cent of the market share in the next two to three years,” he said.

Stating that the Monocil brand would contribute somewhere between Rs 35 crore and Rs 40 crore to the company’s topline and 20 per cent of that to the bottom line in the next financial year, Aggarwal said the company was targeting sales of Rs 550 crore this financial year and touch Rs 720 crore in the next fiscal.

“We are strong in North and South India with both the regions contributing over 30 per cent and a little less than 30 per cent respectively to our revenues. We are eyeing these two regions in a big way,” Rajesh Aggarwal added.