MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Aditya Birla Group has the largest business turnover among Indian companies in Latin

Aditya Birla Group is a late entrant to Latin America and came very much later than the Tatas and Reliance, the other big iconic Indian business groups. However Birla has made up for lost time by emerging as the Indian company with the largest annual business turnover in Latin America, which was around 1.8 billion dollars last year. Birla is also the largest investor from the Indian private sector in Latin America.

Aditya Birla Group is a late entrant to Latin America and came very much later than the Tatas and Reliance, the other big iconic Indian business groups. However Birla has made up for lost time by emerging as the Indian company with the largest annual business turnover in Latin America, which was around 1.8 billion dollars last year. Birla is also the largest investor from the Indian private sector in Latin America.

Novelis Brazil, which is part of the Aditya Birla Novelis (with a global turnover of 11.1 billion dollars in 11 countries), had a turnover of 1.3 billion dollars in 2012. Birla had bought the global assets of Novelis in 2007 for six billion dollars. Novelis Brazil has 2000 employees in their three Aluminium plants in Brazil located at Pindamonhangaba and Santo Andre in Sao Paulo state and Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais.

They are investing over USD 300 million in these plants in the coming years to increase the production capacity.

After Aluminium, the Group has entered manufacture of carbon black with the company Columbian Chemicals Brazil. This was again part of another acquisition of the Atlanta-based Columbian Chemicals in 2011 for 875 million dollars. This has made the Aditya Birla Group as the largest carbon black producer in the world with production facilities in 12 countries. There are two plants in Brazil, one in Cubatão in Sao Paulo state and another in Camaçari in Bahia. The turnover of the two plants was 476 million dollars last year. The plants are being modernised with new investment.

Aditya Birla Yarn Brazil is the market leader in supply of viscose yarn to Brazilian textile companies. The Group is the world’s largest producer of Viscose Staple Fibre.

The three Indian giants (Tata, Reliance and Birla) enrich three distinct sectors of Latin America and the growing Indo-Latin American business partnership. Tata is a leader in Information Technology and human resources development in Latin America with 8000 Latin American staff in nine countries of the region. Reliance is the largest trader with the region accounting for a quarter of the total trade between India and Latin America. Birla is plugged into the industrial sector of Brasil and the region. The products made in the five plants of Birla are inputs which help the growth of Brazilian and Latin American industries in sectors such as packaging, automobiles, construction,chemicals and tyre production.

While employing 2260 Brazilians, the Group has only one Indian in Brazil Mr Anil Jhala, the Latin America head of the Group. This is typical of the Indian companies who believe in local Latin American talents and in training and nurturing them.

Anil Jhala, settled in his elegant office in the World Trade Centre building of Sao Paulo, is upbeat about the long term growth prospects of Brasil and the region and is actively exploring opportunities for further investment in areas such as Cement, Fertilizers,Insulators, Cellulose,Commercial forestry, Plantations, Commodity trading and Mining.

By R. Viswanathan, former India Ambassador in Argentina, is an expert on Latin America.

www.businesswithlatinamerica.com