Havell’s to have 18 plants across globe after buyout

NEW DELHI: Havell’s India is buying Frankfurt-based SLI Sylvania’s lighting business for $300 million from a consortium of private equity firms including Cerebrus Capital, JP Morgan and DDJ Capital. For the year ended December 31, 2006, SLI Sylvania reported revenues of $594 million and a normalised EBITDA of $41.2 million.

The combined entity would have 18 plants across the globe. While Havell’s has eight manufacturing units in India, SLI Sylvania has 10 in Europe, Latin America and Africa employing close to 4,000 people. SLI Sylvania has global professional and consumer lighting brands such as Sylvania, Concord:marlin, Lumiance, Claude and Linolite-Sylvania in its fold. The acquisition would bring all these brands under Havell’s fold.

While announcing the deal, Havell’s chairman and managing director Qimat Rai Gupta said, “Sylvania’s acquisition is a first step towards attaining leading position in the global lighting industry with a strong presence in the developed markets of Europe and high-growth Latin American markets.”

Havell’s India joint managing director Anil Gupta added: “We also have the brand rights for Sylvania for India which we may choose to launch at some time in future. In such a situation, the exact brand strategy with respect to Sylvania and our existing brands would need to be worked out.” The brand rights for Sylvania won’t be applicable in certain global markets, including the US. Havell’s is planning to utilise the brand and distribution infrastructure of SLI Sylvania to expand its switchgear business in the international market.

“Over the years we have been increasing the proportion of outsourced products, and our core competency is designing. We have a dominating presence in Latin America and Europe and we see an opportunity in emerging markets, including Asia,” SLI Sylvania CEO Paul Griswold said.