Aditya Birla group to spend ₹2,000 crore on an MSME e-commerce venture

• Grasim Industries announces foray into a business-to-business e-commerce platform for building materials.
• The platform will focus on MSMEs in the building materials segment.
• The building materials procurement Industry grew by 14% over the last three years

Grasim Industries, a flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, announced its foray into a business-to-business e-commerce platform for building materials. It intends to invest ₹2,000 crore in the next five years.

“This investment adds a new high-growth engine with clear adjacencies within Grasim’s standalone businesses as also that of its subsidiaries and associate companies,” said the company in a statement.

The new platform will focus on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the building materials segment and will be operated by a newly recruited leadership team from the digital ecosystem.

$GRASIM.NSE grew over 4x in the 2020-21 rally from 380 - 1930 in the form of an Impulse and is currently undergoing a pullback correction. While it peaked with the rest of the Market, one bright aspect about Grasim was that there was barely any volume distribution that happened around its peak. Hence, the price correction is only expected to be shallow in nature, though we can't really negotiate much on the time part of the correction as it can stretch until a few more months. For the coming period, it's expected to oscillate between 1650 - 1800 on the upper end and 1200 - 1000 on the lower end, post which we can have a fresh Impulse upwards in the stock that can approximately and conservatively take it to a Target of 3000+ levels over the next few years. #ElliottWave

— (@piyushchaudhry) July 20, 2022

“The foray into B2B e-commerce is yet another strategic portfolio choice as it crystallizes our intent to invest in the new-age, high growth digital space. The building materials segment presents a huge scalable business opportunity with a proven path to profitability,” said Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group.

The overall building materials procurement Industry in India has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14% over the last three years. This industry is estimated at $100 billion with current digital penetration of just 2%.

“With this foray, Grasim would be able to leverage the large B2B ecosystem within the Aditya Birla Group,” Birla added.

The company believes that B2B e-commerce is a high growth opportunity with attractive long-term returns and will be highly value accretive to its stakeholders.

“The key value proposition would be an integrated procurement solution including on-time delivery and a superior product range at competitive pricing,” the company further added.

In May, the company also announced that it is doubling its capex plans in the paint segment to ₹10,000 crore.

Grasim is a global producer of Viscose Staple Fibre and Viscose Filament Yarn, the one of the largest Chlor-Alkali, advanced material, linen yarn and fabrics producers in India.

The group also made its entry into the paints business and has six plants across India locations. Its subsidiaries — UltraTech Cement and Aditya Birla Capital — are one of India’s largest cement producers and a leading diversified financial services player in India.

SEE ALSO:
Fixed deposits back in vogue as crypto, stock market get hit by global headwinds
Food items when sold loose won't attract any GST, says Nirmala Sitharaman