Murugappa Group sets sights on fresh buyouts

NEW DELHI: The diversified Murugappa Group, which has turned around several distressed companies after acquisition, is open to more buyouts, Vellayan Subbiah, vice chairman of the group's flagship firm, Tube Investments of India (TII), told ET.

While the Chennai-based conglomerate continues on its acquisition quest, Subbiah said that TII, which has presence in agriculture, engineering, financial services and electric vehicles through some listed and unlisted firms, will remain focused. He was speaking on the sidelines of the Bharat Mobility Global Expo here.

Group firm TI Clean Mobility on Saturday unveiled its electric three-wheeler cargo and a 3.5-tonne electric truck under the brand Montra Electric. It's already selling the 55-tonne electric trucks and e-three-wheelers in the passenger carrier segment and also plans to introduce electric tractors later this year.


In 2024, some firms under the over-a-century-old, Rs 78,800-crore Murugappa group announced almost half a dozen deals across sectors, the last being the acquisition of German specialty chemicals firm Hubergroup in November for an enterprise value of $310 million. The buyout is seen helping it expand in the global print and packaging sector.

"We are always looking out for good opportunities. Traditionally, we have acquired businesses, turned them around and grown them. That's what we enjoy doing. We don't want to talk about specific areas but as far as TII is concerned, we will stick with the areas we have got into. But at the group level we are open to doing new things," said Subbiah.

"Hubergroup, which makes printing ink, is again a turnaround opportunity," Subbiah said. "In the printing ink space, there are very few companies globally. While 70% of the production will be out of India, it will be for global markets."

To be sure, the buyout of Hubergroup will be a standalone one for TII and unrelated to its existing businesses. But this doesn't seem to bother Subbiah, who has earned the moniker of a turnaround specialist. "Even CG Power was a new business," he said.

TII bought a 57% stake in the fraud hit, debt-laden firm that manufactures and markets products related to power generation, transmission and distribution and rail transportation from Gautam Thapar-led Avantha Group in November 2020; turned it around under Subbiah's chairmanship, making it debt-free. Under the Murugappa group, CG Power's market capitalisation has soared to ?1.04 lakh crore as on January 20, 2025.

"There's nothing wrong in acquiring unrelated businesses as long as you assign a capable manager to run them. Historically, the Murugappa group doesn't apply the learnings from other businesses blindly," said Kavil Ramachandran, professor of family business and entrepreneurship, Centre for Family Enterprise at Indian School of Business.

For instance, CG Power was a new business, so they gave a free hand to the person who was capable of running it and the results are for everyone to see, he noted. "Typically, this is the path they have followed - acquire a business that interests them-it could be loss making, debt-ridden or even a start-up, and then give it to a champion within the group to manage it very professionally. The strategy seems to have worked for them." Meanwhile, Subbiah sees the group's e-mobility business - the segment TII got into in 2022 as part of the de-risking strategy - to contribute more than 20% in TII's top line over the next four to five years.