Novelis acquisition

“It is another Deal—Besides Tata’s takeover of Corus— that India Inc. is unlikely to forget in a hurry. Kumar Mangalam Birla-controlled Hindalco’s acquisition of Canada-based Novelis, an aluminium major, for $6 billion in February was watched with bated breath. Not everyday does an Indian company manage to buy a foreign company twice the size of its gross revenue. The acquisition gave a fillip to Birla’s plan of making Hindalco a truly global company. Apart from scale, the big gain for Birla (40) is the access to technology. The acquisition has paved the way for Hindalco to create a special aluminium alloy that could replace steel in cars. This technology can make an Audi much lighter than a Maruti 800, and thus more fuel efficient. Though there’s still sometime to go before Birla makes headway, he surely has a goldmine in the Novelis buyout.