— PHOTO: SHASHI ASHIWAL

LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY: Nirmal Bhogilal, Chairman and Managing Director, Batliboi, addressing a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday.

MUMBAI: Batliboi, one of the oldest machine tool and engineering companies, has announced the 100 per cent equity acquisition of Quickmill Inc., Canada, for a consideration of about Rs. 22 crore.

Quickmill is an Ontario-based machine tool company and is a leading designer and manufacturer of a wide range of large area machining centres for customers internationally in heat exchangers, machinery equipment, aerospace, dies and moulds, bridge building machinery and automotive sectors with annual sales of around Rs. 52 crore.

With a gross turnover of Rs. 300 crore, Batliboi is a leading player in machine tools, textile engineering and air conditioning and refrigeration in India.

Addressing the media here on Tuesday, Nirmal Bhogilal, Chairman and Managing Director, Batliboi, said, "the acquisition of Quickmill supports our goal of becoming an internationally competitive niche player in our various businesses.

Our strategy is to support Quickmill's current management to grow and develop Quickmill as a separate and distinct entity leveraging its technology, strong brand, reputation and expertise."

The acquisition will be financed 70 per cent by debt and 30 per cent by internal resources. Batliboi has two factories located at Bangalore and Surat.

It has offices in Prague, Shangha and Dhaka and is setting up an office in Sharjah. Besides, Mr. Bhogilal said, Batliboi would distribute Quickmill's products in India, China and West Asia through its network while Batliboi would leverage Quickmill's channels to sell its products in the North American market where Batliboi does not yet sell its products.

Order book position

Batliboi's order book position is at around Rs. 150 crore or six months business and at present exports account for around 10 per cent of sales.

"This should go up substantially after this acquisition as the largest market for machine tools is North America," said Mr. Bhogilal.

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