ABD looks at domestic acquisitions, capacity addition

Kishore Chhabria-promoted Allied Blenders and Distillers Pvt Limited is looking at domestic acquisitions as well as capacity additions, a senior official of the company said.
"We are both looking at acquisitions of domestic spirits companies and also capacity expansion of the distilling and bottling units," vice-chairman and CEO of ABD Deepak Roy said.
Roy said that the company had indentified three targets. "We will take a call within four weeks on this issue," Roy told reporters here today.
He said that ABD was also in talks with PE funds Carlyle and TPG Capital for funding the acquisition and expansion.
"Initially we plan to get USD 200 million from PE funding. That is the maximum. Depending upon the nature of cost involved in both the activities, we will fix the exact amount of PE funding required," Roy said.

The company entered the semi-premium whisky segment with the launch of OC Black. "This is the last brand extension of OC. Next, we will launch a premium whisky under a different brand within six months time," he said.

Asked if ABD was interested in launching any scotch brand, Roy said, "We are interested in that. But we will have to get a good brand so that we can bottle here and market domestically."
The company is looking at Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab for setting up new distilling units.
"We are short of distilling and bottling capacity. We need to correct that," he said.