Tata Tea on $1 bn shopping spree

After Tetley, company plans to acquire brands and mid-sized firms in Americas.

Tata Tea is set to sew up a global acquisition that can cost up to $1 billion, dwarfing its £271 million acquisition of Tetley in early 2000.

Elaborating on the company's plans, RK Krishna Kumar, vice-chairman of Tata Tea, said the company had put in place a two-forked acquisition strategy.

On the one hand, it was planning to take over a company along with its brand in North or South America. On the other, it was preparing to acquire mid-sized companies in the US and Latin America, Krishna Kumar said. The acquisitions can happen over the next six months.

Speaking on the sidelines of Tata Tea's annual general meeting here today, Krishna Kumar said the first acquisition (company and brand) would be larger than the Tetley buyout as the opportunities were bigger now and so were the company's ambitions.

Ratan N Tata, chairman, Tata Tea, said the acquisition would be in the beverage space and that, flavoured tea and herbal tea were possibilities. The acquisition will be made by Tata Tea and Tetley together.

Commenting on the financing options for the acquisition, Krishna Kumar said, there were many options available and the company would not "ring fence" the debt as was done in the case of Tetley. He said, raising foreign exchange had become very easy and raising resources in the domestic market would not be a problem either.

Responding to queries raised by shareholders, Tata said, cash available with the company would be used for acquisition and the company would build a war chest.

The company today sought shareholders' approval for raising the investment limit by Rs 500 crore. However, Tata pointed out that Rs 500 crore would not be enough for the acquisition and hence the company was looking at building a war chest.

The Tetley acquisition, which was the biggest-ever cross-border acquisition by an Indian company at that point in time, was also the first leveraged buyout by any Indian company. The acquisition of Tetley made Tata Tea the second biggest tea company in the world after Unilever.