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City-based infrastructure company Skipper Ltd has formed a 50-50 joint venture Israel’s Metzerplas to foray into micro irrigation market in India.
The venture, Skipper-Metzer India LLP, will focus on drip irrigation offerings (called laterals). Offerings will be available from September this year.
According to Devesh Bansal, Director, Skipper Ltd, the first plant catering to these offerings will come up at Hyderabad, at an initial cost of ₹53 crore ($8 million).
The unit will focus on offerings for the South Indian market only.
“The debt equity will be 70:30 for the project. We are expecting ₹500 crore revenue from this plant by 2024,” he said.
Drip irrigation is pegged to be a ₹5,000 crore market in India.
Expansion plans
According to him, based on the response to the SPV, a second unit can be looked at in Ahmedabad. This will target the western region.
In terms of focus, the southern States and Gujarat and Maharastra are the prime markets for drip irrigation.
“North India is catching up on the use of drip irrigation,” Bansal said adding that the joint venture can look at offerings in the neighbouring SAARC nations like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Listed on the BSE, Skipper has been a manufacturer of power transmission and distribution structures and PVC pipes are its two main verticals.
Nearly 85 per cent of its topline is from the power business and another 12 per cent is from PVC pipes.
The remaining comes from its engineering, procurement and construction vertical.
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