Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and Nippon Soda Co., Ltd. (Nisso) have acquired 56% stake in India’s Bharat Insecticides Limited (BIL), an agrochemicals company through a special purpose company co-founded by the two Japanese companies.
BIL’s promoters will continue to hold balance shares in BIL. As a result of this transaction, BIL has become a group company of Mitsui & Co., Ltd.
“The new relationship with Mitsui and Nisso will further strengthen BIL’s ability to deliver innovative crop protection products and support the sustainable growth of India’s agriculture sector,” BIL said in a statement.
Dharmesh Gupta, Managing Director, BIL said, “BIL’s strong presence in the agrochemicals market in the country will be complimented by Mitsui and Nisso’s diverse experience in the agriculture space. With this alliance, BIL will be in a unique position to leverage the synergies in area of product development with access to Mitsui’s global assets and Nisso’s world class R&D capabilities. The alliance will not only help BIL to grow in Domestic market but will also enable to expand its presence in International markets”.
As part of this association, there are few additions to the BIL’s leadership team, Kimihide Kondo, GM – Mitsui has joined BIL as Joint MD and Masanori Katsura has joined as the CFO and are based out of New Delhi.
“Although Mitsui has been active in the rapidly growing Indian agrochemical industry, this investment into BIL provides us the exciting opportunity to contribute in mainstream manufacturing and distribution of plant protection products in India,” Kimihide Kondo said.