Plywood maker Uniply Industries Ltd is raising Rs 26.4 crore from a bunch of individual investors including Darshan Patel and Nikhil Vora to bankroll a cash and stock deal to acquire architectural design firm Vector Projects (I) Pvt. Ltd.
The firm shall hold a postal ballot with shareholders to approve the preferential allotment later this month, as per a stock market disclosure.
The overall deal is worth Rs 64.12 crore, of which Rs 40.99 crore would be paid in cash and the rest through a stock allotment to the shareholders of Vector Projects, including its promoters, the Rao family. The company has announced last week of its resolve to acquire Vector Projects (I) Pvt. Ltd for Rs 64.12 crore ($9.5 million) in a cash-and-stock deal.
For the cash pay-out, Uniply promoters shall bring in a little over a third of the total through a preferential allotment and the rest would be raised from others.
Darshan Patel and family, who are behind Vini Cosmetics- the FMCG firm with brands like Fogg deo, shall bring in Rs 3.8 crore. Nikhil Vora, an angel investor in several firms including Vini and founder of VC firm Sixth Sense Ventures, will bring in around Rs 1 crore.
Founder 15 years ago by Umesh Rao (CEO), Vector offers interior design and execution services and posted Rs 210 crore revenue in 2015-16. It has manufacturing facilities at Bhandup and Pen in Maharashtra. The facilities enable pre-fabrication of interior products used in Vector's projects. The company has delivered about 1,500 projects spread over an area of 10 million square feet.
Vector has a tie-up with ArtMatrix Malaysia to provide modular furniture with manufacturing and testing facilities in the Southeast Asian nation. Its clients include Tata Consultancy Services, Pfizer, ICICI Bank, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Tata Motors, Volkswagen and Mumbai Police.
Vector is the second acquisition for Uniply this year. In March, Uniply had acquired the plywood and block board unit of Euro Decor Pvt. Ltd for Rs 42 crore.
Uniply makes and sells plywood, laminates and allied products in India. It has a network of about 900 dealers across India. The company posted revenue of Rs 135 crore in 2015-16 and a net profit of Rs 3.8 crore, according to stock-exchange data.
Uniply competes with the likes of Century Plyboards (I) Ltd and Greenply Industries Ltd, which is backed by private equity firm WestBridge Capital Partners.
The promoter holding in Uniply will shrink marginally from 33.13% to 31.78% post the preferential allotment.
Uniply shares last traded at Rs 277.6 each, up 4.09% on BSE, in a strong Mumbai market on Thursday.
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