Balmer Lawrie is set to acquire a 50% stake in a travel and tourism company with a national presence. Though the company remained tight-lipped about the target company, it has appointed SBI Caps to carry out a due diligence exercise.
Talking to newspersons on Monday, Balmer Lawrie managing director S K Mukherjee said, “We want to grow our travel and tourism business in a significant way. We are looking at acquisitions and have identified a company. SBI Caps is doing the due diligence and we hope to complete a deal in the current fiscal.”
Balmer Lawrie has set aside Rs 100 crore for organic as well as inorganic growth in areas such as travel and tourism, logistics infrastructure and services and greases and lubricants.
In 2007-08, the travel and tourism business maintained its profit despite a huge pressure on margins. Balmer Lawrie plans to expand its brand network in the sector by opening offices in Pune and other centres.
As part of its expansion strategy, the company is exploring opportunities for setting up container freight stations in the south and west coast besides inland container depots in the north preferably in and around NCR and establishing state-of-the-art warehousing at Kolkata.
The work on 100% capacity expansion of the container freight station at Chennai at an investment of Rs 15 crore (excluding the cost of land) is in progress. Further, the board of directors of the company has given the necessary go-ahead for setting up a container freight station at Tuticorin.
Source: Economic Times