TPT January 2011

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Global Marketplace
“Africa looks remarkably similar to what India was 15 years
ago,” BusinessWeek was told by Firdhose Coovadia, director
of African operations at Essar Group.
This $15 billion multinational conglomerate, based in Mumbai, has
interests mainly in steel and energy. Said Mr Coovadia, “We can’t
lose this opportunity.”
Messrs Srivastava and Sharma noted that Indian companies
also see Africa as a hedge against a possible slowdown at
home. Apollo Tyres, India’s No. 2 tyre maker, bought South
Africa’s Dunlop Tyres for $62 million in 2006, giving the Indian
firm two manufacturing plants on the continent and brand rights
in 32 African countries.
Apollo’s managing director Neeraj
Kanwar said, “If tomorrow the Indian
economy were to take a U-turn, then
at least you have other markets which
are growing.”
› With all its appeal to Indian
companies seeking new markets,
Africa by no means represents the
limit of their motivation or their range.
According to the India Brand Equity
Foundation (IBEF), Indian firms are
increasingly buying up businesses
abroad as strategic acquisitions,
indicating the growing competitiveness
in the Indian corporate sector.
The website of the IBEF, a public-private
partnership between the Government
of India and the Confederation of
Indian Industry, offers some striking
statistics:
◆ In 2009, Indian companies were
the second-largest foreign corporate
employers in Britain, after US
corporations;
◆ Also in 2009, close to 75% of India’s
outward-bound investments were
in Singapore, Sudan, Mauritius, the
British Virgin Islands and the United
Arab Emirates. The value of these
investments, to gain full or minority
ownership, totalled $8.4 billion;
◆ Over the first half of 2010, Indian
companies invested in 129
companies outside their borders
with a total value of $18.3 billion;
◆ According to a recent analysis by
Grant Thornton India, cited in Epoch
Times (20 October), in August 2010
alone Indian companies closed on
15 negotiated overseas business
deals worth $28 million. By
comparison, in August 2009 such
deals amounted to $8 million.
› Coal India Ltd is considering the acquisition of assets inAustralia,
Indonesia, and the US, its chairman Partha Bhattacharyya said
on 25 October. As noted by Bloomberg News [12 November], mines
overseas would help state-run Coal India meet demand from power
stations that is rising faster than production in Asia’s No. 2 energy-
consuming nation. The Kolkata-based company, which held $8.7
billion in cash and bank deposits at the end of June 2010, has set
aside $1.3 billion for acquisitions in the year ending March 2011.
A rumoured American purchase, for less than $1 billion, is a mine
in Central Appalachia owned by Massey Energy Co (Richmond,
Virginia).
Dorothy Fabian, Features Editor (USA)