one of India’s leading manufacturers of BOPP films
Cosmo Films, one of India’s leading manufacturers of BOPP films, hasacquired GBC Commercial Print Finishing, a world leader in printfinishing materials and machinery, from ACCO Brands Corporation of theUSA for an undisclosed sum. GBC’s annual revenues from thermallamination films and binding equipment are worth US$ 100 million and ithas manufacturing facilities located in the USA, Netherlands and SouthKorea. The transaction is expected to be concluded late in the secondquarter of 2009 subject to certain closing conditions.
GBC is an acknowledged global leader in the print finishing business but its margins have taken a hit in the last couple of years leading it to be placed in discontinued operations by its owners ACCO Brands, a world leader in branded office products, in the fourth fiscal quarter ended December 2008.
With annual sales of INR 7 billion (INR 700 crores equivalent to US$ 140 million), Cosmo Films is India’s pioneer in the manufacture of BOPP films and has a total installed capacity of 56,000 MT/year of BOPP films and 22,000 MT/year of thermal lamination films at plants located at Aurangabad and Vadodara in Western India. They have featured in a list of the top 19 Indian companies compiled by Forbes magazine. They are in the process of setting up a new INR 1.3 billion (INR 130 crore) Bruckner BOPP film plant in Vadodara with an annual capacity of 40,000 MT. This plant is expected to start up in March this year. This plant is expected to add INR 3 billion (INR 300 crores) to Cosmo’s top line this year.
According to Ashok Jaipuria, Chairman and CEO of Cosmo Films, “The deal with GBC Commercial Print Finishing will complement our existing business and enhance global presence. By maximising the strengths of both organizations, we will have a vertically integrated, financially robust organisation with broad management, sales and technical expertise. Our synergy with GBC will help reduce production costs.” Cosmo is targetting consolidated annual revenues of INR 15 billion (INR 1,500 crores) in the next fiscal year.
We spoke to Cosmo Films on their proposed plans for GBC. They are in the process of drawing up their plans and will have finalised them in the next 3 months to dovetail them with their concluding the takeover by the end of the second quarter of 2009.
