Infar Acquires Be Animal Health
Infar (India), along with Intervet International BV of the Netherlands, has acquired the entire equity of the Hyderabad-based vaccine maker BE Animal Health Ltd. Infar (India) is the Indian subsidiary of Akzo Nobel, the Dutch conglomerate which also owns Intervet International BV.
Infar has renamed BE Animal Health as Intervet (India) Ltd in which it has a stake of 25 per cent while the Dutch parent retains 75 per cent of the paid-up share.
The Reserve Bank had cleared the share transfer to the Dutch company in February last. As a result, 3 million equity shares came under the control of Intervet International while Infar (India) got hold of 1 million shares. Infar had to pay Rs 1.45 crore and Intervet International Rs. 4.35 crore at the negotiated price of Rs 14.50 per share, for acquisition of BE Animal Health.
BE Animal Health was promoted by Vijay Datla in collaboration with Solvey & Cie of France. However, the tie-up was later terminated and the company was in the red for some time.
Against a sales turnover of Rs 2.15 crore in 1995-96, the accumulated loss of the company stood at Rs 2.59 crore when it was up for sale.
Infar (India) has, in fact, started production of poultry vaccine from the BE facility. The veterinary segment of Infar (India), which had a share of 15 per cent of Infars total output, would now enter the animal health-care market in a big way under a new subsidiary.
Infar has decided to raise the borrowing limit to Rs 50 crore from the earlier Rs 8 crore. With the net worth of the company resting at about Rs 22 crore, the access to finance for Infar has been raised to Rs 72 crore. The new borrowing limit would be placed before Infar's annual general meeting on July 29.
Infar seeks a higher borrowing power in view of the company's thrust for expansion which is evident from its plan to set up a pharmaceutical (formulation) unit at Ganganar.
The new formulation unit will involve an investment of Rs 50 crore to be made in three years to complete the project.
Infar clocked a sales turnover of Rs 83.68 crore in 1996-97 against Rs 81 crore in 1995-96 and a profit before tax of Rs 8.81 crore (Rs 8.41 crore). On an enhanced capital after the 3:5 bonus issue this year, it had paid a 33 per cent dividend.
Interestingly, after giving a new direction to the company, both chairman GL Mehta and managing director P Gupta have decided to step down after remaining at the helm of the company for long. AV Iyenger, deputy managing director, has already been brought into line of succession as the next managing director and is slated to take over before the year-end.