After announcing an open offer to acquire 26 per cent stake in the country’s largest dry cell battery maker Eveready Industries India Ltd, the Burmans, promoters of Dabur India, plan to “professionalise” the company and consolidate its market leadership in the dry cell business.

According to Mohit Burman, Vice-Chairman, Dabur India, the company would look to leverage the huge potential the Eveready brand has and consolidate its market leadership in the segment further, besides looking at new businesses. He, however, did not elaborate on the new businesses they might look at.

Eveready, the flagship company of the BM Khaitan group, claims to hold close to 50 per cent share in the Indian dry cell battery segment with about 1.3 billion batteries sold annually. The company is engaged in the business of marketing dry cell batteries, rechargeable batteries, flashlights, general lighting products and small home appliances under a single business segment known as consumer goods.

“We hope the company can leverage the huge potential that the Eveready brand has and consolidate its market leadership in the dry cell business, besides looking at newer businesses. Hopefully, we can provide that impetus to the business,” Burman said in an e-mail response to queries sent by BusinessLine.

For the year ended March 31, 2021, Eveready registered three per cent growth in turnover at ₹1,237 crore. However, it registered a net loss of ₹309 crore during the year ended March 2021, against a profit of ₹180 crore in the previous fiscal, on account of exceptional adjustments worth ₹630 crore.

When asked about the company’s performance moving forward, Burman said, “The company has been doing ok. I feel it was bogged down by some promoter-level issues. Hopefully, that is a thing of the past, and that level of leverage seems ok to us as of now.”

Professionalising the management

Once the process of open offer is complete and Burmans take control over the company, it would look to professionalise the company and the management. “We will look to get some new talent on board so that this company can have a bright future,” he said.

It is to be noted that acceding to the Burmans’ demand to induct professional managers to run operations, the Khaitans had last year appointed Suvomoy Saha as joint managing director. It had also appointed consultancy firm Bain & Co to prepare a roadmap for the company’s future growth.

Open offer

In a bid to take control over Eveready, the Burmans, had, on Monday announced that they have made an open offer for acquiring an additional 26 per cent in the company, a flagship of the BM Khaitan group. The Burman group entities plan to acquire upto 18.9 million shares for a total consideration of ₹605 crore.

As on December 31, the promoters’ shareholding in Eveready was at 4.84 per cent. Burmans hold 19.84 per cent stake in the company at present. According to informed sources, the Burman family has sought three board seats and may also look to appoint a Chairman, post the open offer according to SEBI guidelines.

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