Industrial gas major Air Water Inc (AWI) of Japan and its Indian joint venture partner Ellenbarrie Industrial Gases Ltd (EIGL) have parted ways eight years after they joined hands to do business in India.
Osaka-based AWI in 2013 had acquired a 51 per cent stake in Ellenbarrie, which has its headquarters in Calcutta. The city-based company on Monday said the promoters of EIGL has acquired the stake held by its Japanese counterpart for an undisclosed sum.
Following the transaction, EIGL will be the sole industrial gases company wholly owned by Indians. EIGL came into focus during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic which pushed up demand for medical oxygen in May. It is the fourth largest producer of gases in the country after Linde, Inox and Air Liquid.
Varun Agarwal, director of EGIL, said the exit of AWI would not impact the growth plans of the company. “We are a debt-free company which is in the process of doubling capacity and turnover by the second half of 2022-23,” Agarwal said.
The company has production facilities at Kalyani, Uluberia, Kharagpur and Panagarh in Bengal and Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad in south India.
It has begun work on a major expansion at Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, at an investment of Rs 250 crore and capacity of 600 million tonnes per day.
This plant, which will have a steel plant as the anchor customer, is expected to go onstream in the second half of 2022 and will cater to its growing clientele in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.
While EGIL is going ahead with its plans, AWI is charting solo plans in the country. When Linde and Praxair entered into a global merger, the companies had to sell some of their facilities to meet the conditions of the Competition Commission of India.
It bought three plants from Linde, including one located at JSW Steel’s plant, as part of a deal in 2019. However, the transaction sowed seeds of disagreement with the Indian partner.
After scores of cases at the company law tribunal, appellate authority and arbitration in Singapore, the two parties decided to part ways with the Japanese company also securing a no-objection from the Indian partner to do solo business in India.