Rallis India to acquire majority stake in Zero Waste Ltd

Date:04-26-2012


Rallis India Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals, has struck a deal to acquire 51 per cent stake in Zero Waste Agro Organics Pvt Ltd, a Maharashtra-based organic manure and soil conditioners manufacturing company, in a deal aggregating to Rs 29 crore ($5.7 million).

Zero Waste Ltd is the holding company of Zero Waste's businesses and subsidiaries. The group focuses on organic NPK fertiliser with humified-based manufacturing as its core business. It is also into environmental solutions in sugar milling and alcohol production industries, with a range of services in waste utilisation, logistics management and waste treatment.

Zero Waste has operations throughout Maharashtra and Karnataka, including around half a dozen manufacturing plants, besides multiple distribution centres and channels, to market its products. In addition to its sales across western India, Zero Waste exports to overseas markets including the Middle East, Europe and North Africa, as per its website.

Ben James is the founding director and CEO of Zero Waste Ltd. Earlier, he was an executive director of Nature Plus Ltd, an Australian public company operating in the agriculture and fertiliser manufacturing sector, where he was responsible for the management of offices in Australia and the Middle East (including Qatar, the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).

For Rallis, this is the second all-cash deal funded through internal accruals in a little over one year. Earlier, Rallis picked up 53.5 per cent in Bangalore-based seed company Metahelix Life Sciences Pvt Ltd for Rs 99.5 crore. Metahelix, backed by Infosys co-founder Nadathur S. Raghvan's fund Nadhathur Holdings and Kotak Private Equity, was also to get a fresh infusion of Rs 25 crore, which would have raised Rallis' stake in the firm to 59.02 per cent, as per the announcement at that time.

Metahelix is a bio-technology firm focused on developing traits and technologies for crop protection and improved productivity. That transaction also marked a near-exit for Nadathur Holdings and Investments, which had invested a total of $5-6 million in the firm for a stake north of 40 per cent.