Somany Ceramics picks up 26% Commander Vitrified

Tile maker Somany Ceramics said on Tuesday that it has acquired a 26% stake in Commander Vitrified (CVPL) for a realisation of Rs 3.25 crore Consequent upon this deal, Somany shall have full access to Gujarat-based CVPL's manufacturing capacity of 2.65 million sqmts per annum of polished and glazed vitrified tiles, the company said in a statement.

As per the MoU, Somany has an option to further increase the stake to 51% in future, it said. "This strategic investment presents a lot of opportunity for Somany in the current landscape of the Indian ceramic industry. This move is a step towards realising Somany's growth vision," Somany Ceramics joint managing director Abhishek Somany said.

Production at CVPL's state-of-the-art Italian plant in Morbi, Gujarat will commence by May-end and will be dedicated towards manufacturing of large format tiles. "Value-added large format tiles have a huge demand globally. We will drive an additional annualised revenue of about Rs 100 crore from the CVPL plant. We are looking forward to many such robust acquisitions in the coming future," he said.

Post acquisition, the annual production capacity of Somany will increase to 35 million sqmts per annum, inclusive of the contract manufacturing capacity, the release said. At present, Somany has a strong country-wide operational footprint with a wide distribution network, which includes a prudent mix of 1,500 dealers and 9,000 sub-dealers and 15 company-owned showrooms in 33 states, it said