Gravita India Ltd - Stock Valuation and Financial Performance

Gravita India is the flagship Company of the Gravita Group which was established in the year 1992 and has manufacturing unit set up at Jaipur. They are engaged in the business of manufacturing of Lead Metal by Recycling and Smelting process and other lead products. The company is promoted by first generation entrepreneurs, Mahaveer Prasad Agarwal and Rajat Agrawal. It has a subsidiary Gravita Exim, a company specializing in providing turnkey solutions and consultancy services on engineering and design for the secondary lead companies. Gravita India and Gravita Exim together are able to provide a complete solution right from setting up plants to providing value added lead products in the lead metal market.

The company was originally incorporated as Weldtech Private Limited in the State of Rajasthan on August 4, 1992 under the Companies Act, 1956 vide certificate of incorporation issued by Registrar of Companies, Jaipur. The name of the company was changed to Gravita India Private Limited with effect from August 2, 1996 and subsequently company was converted into Public Limited vide a fresh certificate of incorporation dated August 13, 1996 from Registrar of Companies, Jaipur.

The company started its business with welding and surface coating and was appointed as stockist of Eutectic Division of Larsen and Toubro for state of Rajasthan. Later they entered into arena of manufacturing of Lead products from the battery scrap and set up a manufacturing unit at Jaipur with a capacity of 600 MT per annum. In the year 1996-97 with the objective of forward integration the company diversified into Grey Oxide, Litharge and Red Lead. During the year 2000 there was change in the duty structure of import and export of lead products which badly affected the health of the secondary lead producers and they were part of the same. The company had to stall its operation on account non-repayment of dues to banks but revived its operation in the year after the settlement of the same. Since 2005 the company has taken adequate measure to diversify the product range and expand its market to insulate itself from changes in regulations and duty structures. Also the strategy to build plants in different locations globally and service local markets as well as source raw material from different parts of the world has created a strong foundation for the company.

Presently, they are an ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certified company and a certified “Star Export House” by Director of Foreign Trade, India under Ministry of Commerce and Industry with a wide range of lead products. They also have the ability to set up turnkey plants through its subsidiary, Gravita Exim which has gained substantial experience by executing 27 projects in 21 countries. They specialize in producing high quality pure lead ingots with minimum purity level of 99.97% by weight. They have a quality control Laboratory consisting of Optical Emission Spectrometer (OES) of Spectro Germany make and Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) to monitor the purity levels of the product. Their manufacturing operations to produce Pure Lead / Lead Alloys, Lead Oxides (Litharge, Red Lead & Lead Sub-Oxide), are controlled round the clock by experienced Chemists and Quality Control Supervisors.

Products:

1. Pure Lead Ingot - Pure Lead Ingot is being produced from Raw Lead Bullion / Remelted and Secondary Lead Ingots / Lead Scraps through Pyrometallurgical process. Their refining process produces pure lead ingots with a minimum purity level of 99.97% by weight but achieves purity level of 99.985% in most of cases.

2. Lead Alloying - Their alloying plant is capable to produce all kind of Lead Alloys as per the customer requirement like Antimonial, Calcium, Selenium, Copper, Tin, Arsenic, etc. They have alloying kettle of various capacities ranging from 10-30 tones per batch accompanied by high efficiency furnace oil burners equipped with preheating arrangements.

3. Litharge - Litharge is a yellowish or reddish, odorless, heavy, earthy, water-insoluble, solid, PbO, used chiefly in the manufacture of Lead Stabilizers (Lead Steareates), pottery, Lead glass, paints, enamels, and inks. It is also called Lead Monoxide, Lead Oxide, Plumbous Oxide. Other use of Litharge is as intermediate used in a variety of industries like lubricants and greases, insecticides, inorganic pigments, Lead soaps, petroleum refining, rubber and PVC etc.

4. Red Lead - It is bright red to orange-red powder, used in Lead glass, and red pigments; paint made with Red Lead which is commonly used to protect iron and steel from rusting. Chemically, Red Lead is Lead tetra oxide, Pb3O4, a water-insoluble compound that is prepared by the oxidation of metallic Lead or of litharge (Lead monoxide); the commercial product sometimes contains litharge as an impurity. It is one of the oldest and most commonly used anti-corrosion pigments applied to metal surfaces.

5. Lead Sub-Oxide - It is also commercially known as Grey Oxide / Battery Oxide and is used on an extensive scale for preparation of plates in Lead Acid Batteries which requires production to strict specifications.

Subsidiaries:

• Gravita Exim
• Penta Exim
• Pagrik Ethiopia PLC
• Gravita Zambia
• Gravita Ghana
• Gravita Mozambique LDA
• Gravita Senegal SAU
• Gravita Georgia
• Floret Tradelink
• Gravita Infra
• Gravita Energy
• Gravita Technomech LLP

Milestones:

1992-93

• Incorporation of company as “Weldtech India Private Limited” to start business of welding technology and powder metallurgy of surface coatings
• Appointed as stockiest for Eutectic Division of Larsen and Toubro for the State of Rajasthan

1994-95

• Acquired land in Jaipur and set up of an environment friendly recycling operation of battery scrap to produce remelted lead and poly propylene chips with capacity of 600 MT.

1996-97

• Changed its name to “Gravita India Pvt. Ltd and then later converted into Public Limited Company
• Ban on import of battery scrap by Government of India

1997-98

• Diversified into manufacturing of Pure Lead
• Installation of new plant for manufacturing of Grey oxide, Red Lead and Litharge

1999-00

• Reduction of import duty structure on import of litharge from 35% to 5% made the lead manufacturing environment non-viable
• First export of the company

2000-01

• Default on payment of loans to bank resulted in Lock Out for five years

2005-06

• Settlement of Outstanding with Banks
• Re-commencement of business operation

2006-07

• First Subsidiary of the Company
• Crossed Turnover of Rs.20 crore

2008-09

• Acquired Gravita Exim Limited a group company dealing in turnkey solutions for lead processing plants.
• Crossed Turnover of Rs.50 crore

2009-10

• Crossed Turnover of Rs.100 crore

Achievements and awards:

• Certified ISO 9001:2000 by Bureau Veritas Certification (India) in the year 2007
• Certified ISO 14001:2004 by United Registrar Systems (India) in the year 2007
• Gravita Exim awarded Niryat Shiromani Puruskar in the year 2007
• Member of Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. in the year 2008
• Associate Member of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the year 2008
• Presented Technical paper on battery recycling in conferences of India Lead Zinc Development Association at Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Jaipur in the year 2007, 2008 & 2009
• Received Certificate of Recognition as “Star Export House” issued by Office of the Joint Director General of Foreign Trade in the year 2009
• Certified ISO 9001:2008 by Bureau Veritas Certification (India) in the year 2010