Gold Plus Glass Industry raises Rs 400 cr from Premji Invest

Domestic float glass manufacturer Gold Plus Glass Industry said on Wednesday it had raised Rs 400 crore from Premji Invest, Wipro chairman Azim Premji's investment arm, to fund its expansion plans.

Gold Plus operates two float glass lines (clear glass and tinted glass) with a combined annual installed capacity of 427,000 tonnes  and commands a 16% share of the installed float glass capacity in the country. The investment from Premji Invest will help increase its capacity by an additional 730,000 tonnes per annum. Over the next three-four years, Gold Plus will invest over Rs 2,000 crore to add two new float glass lines in India, it said in a statement.

The company said the expansion aims to tap the expected growth in demand because of mega government initiatives like the development of 100 smart cities as well development of airports, metros, and large infrastructure projects.

“We believe that the investment from Premji Invest will help us accelerate our expansion plans and also enable us to increase our market share. The growth in the demand for float glass in India is expected to be robust on a long-term basis,” said Subhash Tyagi, founder and chairman of Gold Plus Glass Industry.

Gold Plus operates a fully integrated manufacturing facility at Roorkee, Uttarakhand and the only facility in north India capable of supplying the highest grades of clear, tinted, hard coated reflective, frosted and mirror glass from a single location.

It also operates two processing units in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh for value-added glass such as toughened, laminated, insulating, ceramic printed, acoustic, bullet proof and automotive glass. Gold Plus, through its processing units, has executed several turnkey projects not only India, but also in Nepal, Bhutan, the U.K., and Qatar. The current domestic market size of the float glass industry is 3 million tonnes per annum with an expected growth rate of 12%-15%, the company said.

Premji Invest was started in 2006 with a corpus of $1 billion. Today, it has nearly $3 billion under management, a large part of which is invested in capital markets. Over the years,  Premji Invest has invested across an array of companies ranging from online fashion retailer Myntra and e-commerce player Snapdeal to ethnic-wear retailer Fabindia, HDFC Standard Life and iD Fresh Food, which makes ready-to-cook idli and dosa batter.