Bharat Forge gears up for expansion

Our Corporate Bureau
18 October 2006

Bharat Forge is looking forward to an action-packed second half. For starters, it's gearing up for shopping and expansion. CNBC-TV18 reports that it could become the world's largest forging company.

Baba Kalyani's hungry for more. After two acquisitions and a joint venture in the past year, Bharat Forge is set to acquire more companies this financial year.

But the new acquisitions will be in the non-automotive forging industry in North America and Europe. Even in India, Bharat Forge is investing in building its business from non-automotive sectors.

It will invest Rs 350 crore in facilities in Pune and Baramati from which it hopes to generate Rs 1,000 crore by 2011. Besides Bharat Forge is set to bag four contracts worth at least $200 million.

"This signals a point of inflection for the company where its relationship with customers has enhanced to a different level. Margin's back to 29 per cent. We should see better growth as we start leveraging our capacity in the next few quarters," said Baba Kalyani, CMD, Bharat Forge.

Through acquisitions Bharat Forge wants to add 1 lakh tonnes this fiscal to its 6 lakh tonne capacity. That would take it past ThyssenKrupp, which Kalyani says, has a capacity of 6 lakh tonnes. But Bharat Forge does not want to be only a forging components maker.