The BL Interview. Aleris will give us a wide range of customers, verticals: Birla

It took us almost one year to close the deal and it was a well-defined process. A deal of this size takes time with various companies competing for the same asset. As we have said before, we evaluate all the opportunity that comes on the table.

No, we made investments in textiles also, for instance. There are smaller and larger business opportunities. If we are in a business, it’s a focus area for us. Otherwise we would rather not be in it. We have got fashion retail, that’s a focus area for us. The business you mentioned are, of course, larger ones. Investment decisions also depend on opportunities. We cannot time it always. There are opportunities in every business. We are looking at it as well. It could be organic or inorganic. The idea being value creation.

I think Novelis was driven by the fact we wanted to move the portfolio to have a larger share of value added products with higher margins. It also protects us from volatile prices. This has been proven in the last 11 years. I think Novelis today is a well-regarded and valuable company. Aleris is step forward in that direction giving us wide range of customers, new verticals like aerospace, automotive and construction.

If we look at metals points of view. Currently, the demand for metals seems to be quite strong globally. The world economy is doing great. According to the last IMF report, US and Chinese economies are doing well. India economy is growing. There are some distractions, but the economies are really doing well. Indian demand is very strong, but rising aluminium imports is a matter of concern. The growth in India is attracting Chinese and other countries. The aluminium industry is concerned over dumping of aluminium. India should take action to restrict dumping.

It’s a new regulation, which is very well intended. Some clarifications are needed. It is aimed to achieve value maximisation. It also takes up the level of governance from the promoters and entrepreneurs. It will be better if the process is made faster. Our own bid for Binani Cement is coming up for hearing in the first week of August.

There are a couple of areas where we are competent than the other company. They had zero presence in the US and we have significant investment in multiple locations. We have operating facilities across locations.

We are constructing a new plant in Kentucky. We have been in business in the US for decades building trust.

The Chinese company which was competing with us, had neither a presence in the US nor made any investment there. As an aluminium industry, we are making 1.5 million tonnes of sheet that go into the automotive sector against 8 million tonnes used. We are competing with steel. The process will take time.

We are not going to see any redundancy in operation. No job losses. This deal is about growth. We will be taking over certain plants and continue to grow these plants across the world and particularly in the US.

It’s completely about growth than anything else. It is about making solutions available to customers. It about achieving synergies and cost reduction to make the operations more resilient.

It is better for them to answer, but I think the private equity investors do not lock their investment in an asset for a long time. They want to exit after a point of time booking profit. This, incidentally, fits into our search for growth.

We should start operations in the next few weeks. We are still in the process of framing the strategy which will be revealed soon. We will make substantial investments in the telecom sector.

Our economists are expecting India to grow at over eight per cent and it will be one of the fastest growing countries. It is back on strong fundamentals. Some of the sectors are coming back strongly. Rising lending rates and inflation will have an impact but not much to hamper growth completely. It is a part of doing business in any part of the world.

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