Kesoram Industries Limited is an Indian industrial company which produces rayon. It is a part of the conglomerate, BK Birla Group.
History
Kesoram Industries Limited started its business as Kesoram Cotton Mills in 1919. After a partnership, the first rayon plant was built in 1959 under the name Kesoram Rayon. Shortly after the plant was built, the company also started the production of tires and cement under the brand name Birla Tyres and Birla Shakti Cement respectively. In 1986, another cement plant, known as Vasavadatta Cement, was commissioned by it at Sedam, Gulbarga district, Karnataka. The name of the company was changed to Kesoram Industries Limited on 9 July 1986. Since then, Kesoram Industries listed on four stock exchanges: the National Stock Exchange of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Calcutta Stock Exchange, and the Bourse de Luxembourg.
Kesoram Industries entered into a joint venture with Maharashtra Seamless Limited and Dhariwal Infrastructure Private Limited in 2012 for working a coal block allocated to it by the Central Government in Maharashtra.[2]
During 2014–15, the company sold a tyre plant to JK Tyres.[3] In 2018, Kesoram Industries demerged its tire manufacturing business Birla Tyres, as part of a debt reduction plan.[4] Birla Tyres later filed for insolvency and was taken over by a consortium led by Himadri Speciality Chemicals and Dalmia Bharat Refractories.[5]
In 2019, after the death of Basant Kumar Birla, his daughter Manjushree Khaitan became the chairperson of Kesoram Industries.[6] In 2024, Khaitan died after a brief illness.[7]
In 2023, Kesoram Industries announced that it would demerge and sell its 10.75 MTPA cement business to UltraTech Cement for ₹5,379 crore (US$630 million) in an all-stock deal.[8] The sale is expected to complete by the end of 2024, leaving Kesoram Industries with its rayon and transparent paper packaging businesses held by its subsidiary Cygnet Industries.[9]
Business
In 2015, Kesoram Industries Limited had three major divisions:[10]
- Birla Tyres – Birla Tyres was first established in 1991, as part of Kesoram Industries Limited. It then collaborated with tyre manufacturer Pirelli, in the production and development of its tires.
- Birla Shakti Cement – Under the cement division of Kesoram Industries Limited, Birla Shakti manufactures and sells cement. Birla Shakti has two cement manufacturing plants located in Sedam, Karnataka (the "Vasavadatta Cement Plant") and Basantnagar, near Ramagundam of Telangana (the "Kesoram Cement Plant").[11][12][13]
- Kesoram Rayon – Established in 1959, Kesoram Rayon is a viscose rayon filament yarn and cellophane paper manufacturing unit. Situated in the banks of the Ganges, the factory has over 2700 employees and 52 spinning machines with an installed capacity of 6500 MT per annum.
References
