Tata Chemicals to buy Allied Silica for ₹123 cr.

Tata Chemicals entered into a business transfer agreement with Allied Silica Ltd. to acquire its business of precipitated silica for a consideration of ₹123 crore on a slump sale basis.

“The deal is expected to be closed within three months,” the company said in a statement. “This acquisition is a part of the ₹295 crore investment approved by the Board [in] Feb 2017, towards this speciality business.” It added this agreement included the acquisition of an existing manufacturing site in Tamil Nadu to produce Highly Dispersible Silica (HDS).

The speciality chemical product represents downstream value addition to Tata Chemicals’ soda ash business, in which it ranks among top manufacturers, globally. “This acquisition is another step in our journey to build technologically enabled, differentiated businesses, with greater customer centricity, by leveraging our core strengths,” said R. Mukundan, MD, Tata Chemicals. “This is in line with our focus to grow our speciality business, along with our consumer business.”

Precipitated silica is used in demand applications in many industries including rubber, oral care, coatings and agrochemicals.

Products for the future

The acquisition also offers Tata Chemicals the capability to make value-added silica in future for applications that demand high performance, said the statement.

The technology for manufacturing HDS, for which eight patent applications had already been filed, had been developed at the firm’s innovation centre in Pune.