Gulf Oil International announced the listing last Thursday of its newly demerged Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd (GOLIL) on Indias premier stock exchanges - the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), following the requisite approvals. Sanjay Hinduja, the Chairman of Gulf Oil International opened the market to commence the days trading by striking the gong at the listing ceremony of GOLIL at the BSE. The listing was inaugurated by the lighting of a lamp by Sanjay Hinduja; Ravi Chawla, MD, GOLIL and Mr. Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD and CEO, BSE Ltd.
Following the demerger of its lubricants business from Gulf Oil Internationals Indian subsidiary Gulf Oil Corporation Limited, the new company, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd will manage the standalone Lubricant business in India under the Gulf brand.
The move to demerge came because Gulf considered that its lubricant business had reached the size and scale to independently take up its future growth journey in a more focused manner. GOLIL, which will be a company solely dedicated to lubricants, will be given the necessary focus and resources to increase its business revenues and market share in Indias lubricant market according to company officials. Given the positive outlook for the Indian economy, Gulf Oil believes it is well placed to increase its market share in both Automotive and Industrial lubricants.
Addressing the media, Sanjay Hinduja, Chairman, Gulf Oil International said, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd. aims to realise its vision of becoming one of the top 3 lubricant brands in the industry with expected support from the growing Indian economy. The company will continue to outperform the industrys growth by enhancing its distribution, investing in the brand and securing more OEM tie-ups. Furthermore, this is in line with our global vision of being one of the largest independent downstream players in lubricants and speciality chemicals in the world.
Ravi Chawla, Managing Director, GOLIL added, In the past five to six years, our strategies of leveraging our longer drain technological prowess, increasing our distribution reach and innovative brand building initiatives have resulted in volumes, revenues and profits growing multi-fold. The lubricant business has attained CAGR growth of about 15% in revenues and about 42% in profits before taxes over last 6 years. The Lubricant business has delivered an EBITDA margin of over 12% consistently and the volume growth rates are more than double the industry growth rates during this period, to emerge as one of the fastest growing lubricant majors in India.
With this demerger we have plans to further expand our current 7% market share in the open market namely the bazaar channel and in the B2B-related OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), Industrial & Infrastructure segments.
Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited (GOLIL) has also put in place plans to enhance manufacturing capacities at its current blending plant at Silvassa and is also at an advanced stage of setting up a new plant near Chennai. The company is setting up a new, 75,000 KL capacity, plant in Chennai at a cost of about Rs 120 crore (US$20 million). It is also expanding the capacity of its existing plant at Silvassa in Dadra and Nager Haveli from 75,000 KL to 90,000 KL.
Parsippany, NJ-based research and consulting firm Kline & Company estimates total finished lubricant demand in India at 2,275.0 KT in 2013 with the top five suppliers being Indian Oil (IOCL) with a market share of 18%, Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) 15%, BP 8%, Bharat Petroleum (8%), and Apar 7%.
Gulf Oil International is part of the Hinduja Group and is responsible for the management of the Gulf brand in more than 100 countries across five continents. Gulf Oil Internationals core business is manufacturing and marketing an extensive range of more than 400 performance lubricants and associated products, for all market segments. The company has also expanded into the global marine business. Hong Kong-based Gulf Oil Marine, has been delivering lubricants to ships across more than 1000 ports since 2008. In December 2012, the company added metal working fluids company Houghton International into its fold, to further increase its presence in the areas of lubricants and specialty chemicals.
