Balmer Lawrie looks for acquisition in travel business segment

Balmer Lawrie & co. Ltd, a Government of India enterprise is looking at acquiring tours and travel companies to strengthen its existent business. The company has an outlay of Rs 20-50 crore for the same. It is also planning to launch its e-commerce portal for its travel business by early next year.

P P Sahoo, executive director, Human Resources of the company said, “We are developing a travel portal biz though we already have an internet based ticket booking facility this will be in the similar lines to those of the existing ones like makemytrip . The travel company had a turnover of Rs 600 crore last year and this year we had a turnover of Rs 870 crore and we are looking at a topline of Rs 1000 crore in next year.”

The company also has a presence in the industrial packaging, grease & lubricants, performance chemicals and tours & travel, logistics infrastructure & services and engineering & technology services.

Balmer Lawrie is set to enter the construction chemical business which is targeted towards the infrastructure business. It has formed a collboration with a Chinese company called MUHU for technical services. It has expended Rs 3 crore on this venture till date and the company did not reveal further investment plans.

Sahoo says, , “Construction chemical is a performance chemical which acts as a binder for cement and concrete and acts as a strengthening agent in construction. We have started manufacturing it from our Chennai plant.”

The total size of the construction chemical industry is Rs 1800 crore and industry capacity is approximately 5 lakh tonne per annum. The company plans to manufacture 1000-1500 tonnes.