Amara Raja Batteries in $1-bn capex push

Amara Raja Batteries plans toinvest about $1 billion in next five to seven years towards capex to be spent for both organic and inorganic growth, says a senior official of the company.

The battery maker would be focusing more on the new- age energy storage systems such asLithium-ion Technology keeping in view of the market trends as Lead Acid battery market growth rate is expected to taper off over a period of time, S Vijayanand, president, New Energy wing of Amara Raja, said on Monday.

"So, we are talking about a close to $1 billion investments for a 10 to 12 Gigawatt hours (Lithium Ion battery) facility to make ACC batteries under PLI scheme of the government. The time period for execution is dependent on the market demand growth, but we foresee that this investment could happen over a period of 5 to 7 years,"said Vijayanand.

In May, the Centre approved the PLI (Production Linked Incentives) scheme for manufacturing ACC (Advanced Chemistry Cell) batteries at an estimated outlay ofRs18,100 crore.

Vijayanand said Amamra Raja has been making about Rs400 to Rs500 crore investment on capex and sustaining the existing businesses traditionally every year.

Replying to a query, he said the Amara Raja is expecting 15 to 17 per cent growth in revenues in the next five years and hoped that it would become a $2 billion entity by then. Amara Raja Batteries clocked Rs 7,150 crore revenues in FY21 registering Rs 647 crore net profit. Without giving a direct reply on media reports that the company mulls to move its manufacturing base for Chittoor to some other state, he said,

"There is no locational risk that we are continuing to have in terms of putting all your eggs in one basket."Vijayanand said the future investments will be dependent on growth requirements and maker needs. Amara Raja Board recently inducted HarshavardhanaGourineni and VikramadityaGourineni as Executive Directors.