SRF Limited, the domestic market leader in technical textiles, refrigerant gases and a preferred supplier of other fluorochemical products and polyester films, has announced the signing of a definitive agreement for the acquisition of the belting fabrics business of Industex Technical Textiles (Pty) Limited, a South African company today. The South Africa-based company has an annual production capacity of approximately 3,500 tonnes of Belting Fabrics with annual sales of around $16 million. With this deal, SRF improves its world ranking from the 3rd largest player to 2nd largest player in the arena of Belting Fabrics Business.     

Presently, SRF has a capacity of 7,500 TPA belting fabrics which are manufactured in its plant at Trichy. India’s largest player in belting business, SRF is the market leader with 50% market share. The company’s exports account for 57% of the sales.   

The acquisition that is coming through one of SRF’s international subsidiaries, will cost approximately Rs. 20 crore including working capital.  Post acquisition, the entity will be known as SRF Industex Belting (Pty) Limited. 

The deal comes close on the heels of Rs. 100 crore definitive agreement signed by SRF for the acquisition of Thai Baroda Industries Limited (TBIL), a Thailand-based tyre cord company. The agreement for TBIL was signed on 27th May 2008.

Reflecting on the recent acquisition, Mr. Ashish Bharat Ram, Managing Director, SRF Limited commented, “We are excited about SRF’s second acquisition in just over a month, as it firmly places SRF’s belting business on a global map. More importantly, it gives us an opportunity to enter Africa, a continent of the future. The mining industry, which is the largest consuming sector for the belting fabrics business, is growing rapidly over there and it will be our endeavour to expand capacity and develop other synergies with our Indian operations at the earliest.”

SRF Industex Belting (Pty) Limited will also be a large consumer of SRF’s new Polyester Industrial Yarn (PIY) facility, being set up at Gummidipoondi in Tamil Nadu. The PIY project with a total investment of around Rs. 250 crore will become operational by early 2009.  

Sourced From: SRF Limited