Murugappa's Coromandel International Plans Rs 2K Cr Investment By 2025

Coromandel International, an agriculture solutions company, has said the government’s One Nation, One Fertiliser’ scheme launched last year has not impacted its sales and it expects volume to increase by 6-10 per cent in FY24.

The Murugappa Group company plans to invest around Rs 2,000 crore in two years in various segments, including specialty chemicals. The government scheme markets fertilisers in the country under ‘Bharat’ brand name. Accordingly, fertiliser bags across the country have a uniform design labeled Bharat Urea, Bharat DAP, Bharat MOP and Bharat NPK.

“This initiative has not impacted our volume. We expect it (sales) to be in the range of around 6-10 per cent during the current financial year,” Jayashree Satagopan, president (corporate) and chief financial officer at Coromandel International, told 'Business Standard'. In FY23, the company has seen its volume increasing by 10 per cent for fertilizers and manufacturing output moving up by 14 per cent, along with a capacity utilization of over 90 per cent. Coromandel deals in fertilisers, crop protection chemicals, bio products, specialty nutrients, organic fertilizers, and retail.

“For the current year, we are looking into around Rs 2,000 crore of investment approval and the cash flow could happen over the next couple of years,” said Satagopan. The company had earlier announced that it will invest Rs 1,000 crore in the next two years to expand operations in crop protection chemicals and enter the contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) business.

The company reported a net profit of Rs 2,013 crore in FY23 compared to Rs 1,528 crore in FY22. Total income in FY23 increased to Rs 29,799 crore compared to Rs 19,255 crore in FY21-22.

“For the first time we have crossed the Rs 2,000 crore mark in net profit. We have grown not just in revenue terms. In our main business of  fertiliser, the MRP is guided by raw material prices. Given the highly elevated raw material prices, this year we have seen a high revenue growth. When raw material prices cool, we may see reversal happening. You need to also look at volume terms. Volume growth has been 10 per cent for fertilizer,” she said.

The government is looking to reduce dependency on imports and replacing them with domestically produced nano fertilizers by 2025. Coromandel will launch its nano DAP (Diammonium phosphate) for the Kharif season this year.

“Nano DAP is something which our team has developed in-house. This also got government approval. We will also launch it for the Kharif season and will also be putting up a plant for the nano DAP in Andhra Pradesh for around Rs 100-120 crore,” Satagopan said.