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Gillanders Arbuthnot to acquire Malawi’s tea and macadamia firm

By Anuradha Verma

  • 18 Feb 2014
Gillanders Arbuthnot to acquire Malawi’s tea and macadamia firm

Kolkata-headquartered diversified business group Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co Ltd has agreed to buy out Malawi-based Group Development Ltd, along with its three wholly owned subsidiaries that are engaged in the business of producing and selling tea, macadamia and other crops, as per a stock market disclosure.

Financial details of the transaction remain under wraps. (UPDATE: The firm has disclosed on November 27, that the deal value is $12 million). 

Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co, which deals in textile, engineering, tea, chemical, trading and property businesses primarily in India, was founded by FM Gillanders and GC Arbuthnot in 1935. Presently, Kothari family owns 68.73 per cent stake in Gillanders Arbuthnot.

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The company recently re-appointed DK Sharda as MD and CEO for three years with effect from April 1, 2014.

In the third quarter ended December 31, 2013, the company posted an increase of 30 per cent in its net profit to Rs 14.96 crore from Rs 11.5 crore in the same period the previous fiscal. Also, the net sales of the company rose 24 per cent to Rs 264 crore from Rs 208 crore in the year-ago period.

There have been a few other deals where Indian firms have acquired companies in Malawi in the agri-commodity field.  In 2012, Dhunseri Petrochem and Tea Ltd, acquired Malawi-based Makandi Tea and Coffee Estates Ltd. for an undisclosed amount from Global Tea and Commodity Ltd.

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(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)

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