The Competition Commission of India has approved the acquisition of four consumer brand business of Heinz India by Zydus Cadilla for close to ₹4,500 crore. The brands include Glucon-D, Nycil, Sampriti Ghee and Complan.

The products add to Zydus Wellness’ personal care and wellness products such as Sugar Free, EverYuth and Nutralite.

Sharvil Patel, Chairman of Zydus Wellness, told BusinessLine in a recent interaction: “The segment that Zydus Wellness operates in is well-aligned with the four brands of Heinz. We had very little conflict, and see great amount of synergy in terms of product positioning and proposition. We were able to provide a clean and fast executable structure to Heinz, which was important for them.”

The acquisition will add two large manufacturing facilities in Aligarh (UP) and Sitarganj (Uttarakhand). Zydus will now have five manufacturing facilities, 1,800 distributors and nearly two million sales points.

Hazira, Usha Martin buys

Along with Heinz acquisition, the competition watchdog also approved 100 per cent acquisition of Hazira LNG Pvt Limited and Hazira Port Private Ltd by Shell and Usha Martin’s steel unit to Tata Steel.

The move will allow Shell commercial and operational flexibility over Hazira to maximise integrated value and offer creative customer value propositions. “This portfolio action is consistent with Shell’s strategy to deepen its presence in the gas value chain in India, the fourth largest LNG consumer in the world. Shell aims to contribute in bridging the energy deficit and further augment gas supplies in India,” the company said in an earlier statement.

Maarten Wetselaar, Shell’s Integrated Gas & New Energies Director, said in an earlier statement, “This purchase creates a fully-owned and integrated Shell value chain — supply from our global LNG portfolio, re-gassification at the Hazira facility, and downstream customer sales. It enables Shell to better serve Indian customers and meet the country’s long-term need for more and cleaner energy. This also significantly strengthens the connection of the fastest growing gas markets in the world, India, and Shell’s unrivaled portfolio of competitive gas supply.”

The country’s largest steel wire rope maker Usha Martin Ltd is selling its steel unit to Tata Steel’s subsidiary Tata Sponge for close to ₹4,600 crore.

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