India Business Journal - Invested $20 bn in manufacturing, eyeing first or second spot: K M Birla

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Invested $20 bn in manufacturing, eyeing first or second spot: K M Birla

IBJ Bureau
Nov 17, 2024

The Aditya Birla Group had invested about $20 billion, mainly in manufacturing sector, as it looked to be among the top-two players across the segments it operates in, Aditya Birla Group Chairman K Kumar Mangalam Birla said on Saturday.

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Mr Birla said that his group had taken tough decisions, including the acquisition of Novelis by Hindalco, to build scale and aimed to expand cement business from 100 mt to 200 mt over the next 10 years.

He added that most of the group’s investments were long term in nature, with a business outlook over the next 15-20 years, while consumer businesses had a shorter span.

“We have $20 billion of announced investments that are on the ground. Obviously, you look at it because a lot of them are in the manufacturing space. You would look at the next 15-20 years. Anything shorter than that does not make sense in that kind of business. If, on the other hand, you are looking at fashion retail or jewellery retail or financial services, then you are looking at a much shorter timeframe,” Mr Birla said.

He noted that values, people, scale and running businesses for the long term were key strategies that defined a group’s way of doing business.

“We want to be number one or two in every business that we are in or get into. So, like they say, scale is in everything, but it is the only thing. Without scale, I think it is very difficult to survive today unless you have something very unique, very high technology, which gives you very high margins. So, scale is very important,” Mr Birla added.