Tiles maker RAK India plans to go public

Company plans to invest Rs 500 cr in India over next five years to scale up production both greenfield or brownfield expansion

RAK India, the domestic arm of the UAE-based tiles maker RAK Ceramics, is planning to go public through an initial public offering when market conditions become conducive.

"The right time to raise the capital from the primary market is a combination of the time for the company and also the market conditions," RAK Ceramics global chief executive Abdallah Massaad told PTI.

Elaborating further, Massad said, "We will launch the IPO when we feel that we are ready for the capital markets and the market is going through the right dynamics."

RAK, which is the world's largest tiles manufacture, has production facilities in the UAE, India, Bangladesh, Iran, Sudan, and China and India is one of its core markets.

While the parent RAK Ceramics is listed on the Abu Dhabi Exchange, one of its Bangladesh arms is listed on Dhaka Stock Exchange.

"So we have that mentality of accessing the capital markets and obviously as Samena Capital being a financial investor, capital markets are always a route to raise capital," he said.

Investment group Samena Capital has recently acquired 30.6% stake in RAK Ceramics from its founder Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi.

The company plans to invest Rs 500 crore in India over the next five years to scale up production both greenfield or brownfield expansion. In May, RAK had said it was mulling to set a new plant in the country to increase capacity.

RAK runs a vitrified tile manufacturing plant at Samalkot in Seemandhra with a capacity of 30,000 sqm of tiles and 1,500 sanitary ware pieces per day.

The company globally produces 117 million sqm ceramic and porcelain tiles, besides 4.5 million pieces of bathware per annum and exports to over 160 markets, making it the company world's largest.