Kirloskar Brothers looks at overseas acquisitions

Kirloskar Brothers Ltd(KBL), a leading player in the pump manufacturing segment, is looking at acquisitions in the US and Europe in the pumping solutions space, and hopes to complete the process within this fiscal. The company is at the same time bullish on the power sector, especially by the opportunities thrown open by the Indo-US nuke deal.

"Pumping solutions are our core area and we will not move away from that. We would try to fill in any product gap that might exist. Like, pumps for the super-critical boilers are currently not manufactured in India", said Pradeep Chapalgaonkar, vice president, KBL.

The company made four acquisitions since 2002, including SPP Pumps in the UK that specialised in fire-fighting solutions. It has spent around Rs 50 crore on acquiring three domestic companies last year that were an effort towards backward integration.

KBL has a cash surplus of Rs 75-100 crore while the Kirloskar Group has a surplus of around Rs 700 crore. "All our acquisitions have been from internal accruals so far, but we are open to other options as well if we consider an opportunity to be appropriate", Chapalgaonkar said. When asked if the company would look at leveraging its networth, he told reporters that it indeed was a possibility.

"We will consider product range, core competence and customer base as requisites for an acquisition", he added. KBL is open for acquiring more than one company and is in talks with four-five companies at the moment. It aims to become one among the top five pump manufacturers in the world by 2015.

It escalated from number 25 three years back to number 13 now in terms of revenue. The company is looking at registering a 45 per cent surge in its exports this fiscal from Rs 250 crore last year.