The CEO of Rallis India wants to hurry its slow-and-stained pace. It won't be easy.
Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Seeds of change: How Rallis India plans to double growth without spending Big Dipti Sharma 5 min, read 05 Jun 2025, 06:59 pm Ist Rallis India is looking for growth, although the agrochemical market in which it operates, has been functioned by some recent macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges. (Reuters) Summary While domestic investors gradually prune their stake in Rallis India, foreign institutional investors have gradually increased their exposure to the share. What do they know? Rallis India Ltd, a Tata group business that produces fertilizers and insecticides, has struggled at a steady rate without much bustle, but a new head wants to revise the business in the hope of accelerating growth. CEO Gyanendra Shukla, who took the lead in Rallis India in April last year, aims to double his revenue in five years, also through acquisitions, even if he admitted that the company did not meet expectations. Although Rallis India’s business is profitable and stable, shareholders’ expectations are different, Shukla said in an interview with Mint and explained the company’s renewed focus on growth after a few 10 years. “They compare us to stock market peers and look at returns and payouts. Honestly, we haven’t met these expectations yet. “We are financially healthy, but what we are not missing is a little aggression, courage and risk-taking,” he said. Check out the full Beeld Rallis India Chief Executive Office Gyanendra Shukla. Tata Chemicals Ltd is the largest shareholder in Rallis India with a 55% share, while public investors own the remaining 45%. Rallis India’s turnover rose about 0.6% to £ 2,663 crore in 2024-25 from £ 2,648 crore in FY24, when revenue fell by 11%. Tax profits fell 15% to £ 125 in FY25 of £ 148 crore in the previous year. Nevertheless, Shukla is confident that the company can achieve a high double -digit growth over the next five years without incurring large -scale investments. “We believe that our current capacity is more than sufficient for the next five years.” Shukla added that although the production of capital expenditure of Rallis India will be incremental-there are no plans to, for example, establish a £ 500 crore facility; “It’s completely off the table now” – the growth can be accelerated by inorganic opportunities. “We are in active conversations with Japanese and global players to explore possible opportunities and cooperation. If something is realized, our first preference is to utilize existing assets because it is the most effective approach,” Shukla said. Read also | What cooling oil prices mean to India’s fertilizer companies, the growth strategy of India: from weakness to strength, Shukla expects Rallis India’s seeds, soil and plant health and household crop protection companies to be the most important growing engines – the seed business is where the ‘profits come’, he said. However, from the Rallis India’s £ 430 revenue in the March quarter-which dropped in the fourth quarter of £ 436, the seed industry contributed only £ 25 crore, while the crop care business was £ 405, which included £ 37 crore of the soil and plant health segment. Modern breeding techniques can significantly improve seed quality without necessarily involving transgenic methods or introduce foreign genes, Shukla said. Even conventional cross -building involves no transfer, but controversies about genetically modified (GM) crops arise when bacterial genes are used, he added. That said, Shukla believes that there are dozens of other advanced instruments in modern biotechnology that actively use Rallis India, and ‘This is where the gains in the seed industry come from’. Read also | Privatization of fertilizer companies on the menu, one small firm at a time about improvement for the business, Shukla explained: ‘There are still significant gaps in our herbicide portfolio, and we address it through new product launches and possible collaboration. Everything doesn’t have to be manufactured in the house. ‘ Rallis India said in his latest earnings that herbicides, part of the crop protection business, became the largest category in non -nuclear Rabi Crop (in winters) segment. However, the company acknowledged that it remained poor in this category. “We are weak on cotton herbicide. We are weak on soybean herbicide. We are weak on maize herbicide. So, over the entire categories, we are weak. So I’m that it’s about 30-35% of the crop protection market,” Shukla told the analysts during the call on April 24. According to Shukla, the most important growth strategies of Rallis India are to achieve expansion by herbicides and fill critical portfolio gaps. This year, the company introduces two new products, with a rice herbicide planned next year, the CEO said, adding that some products may be phased out to make room for new ones. Read also | China’s supply cutting and global disorders reduce India’s fertilizer imports a bigger challenge: Global trade according to analysts at Nuvama Institutional Equity, Rallis India must improve its portfolios for fungicides and insecticides, as some of its products have not been well accepted by the market. However, the analysts added that the business is actively improving the effectiveness of the product and better aligning its offer with the market needs. Rallis India, who earns about 80% of its turnover from the domestic market, competes mainly with Dhanuka Agritech Ltd, PI Industries Ltd, UPL Ltd, BASF India Ltd and Coromandel International Ltd in India. In overseas markets, the most important competitors include Bharat Rasayan Ltd, Sharda Cropchem Ltd, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd and Meghmani Organics Ltd., the broader agricultural chemical market in which Rallis India works are by some recent macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges. For one, after the US trade war with China, there are concerns that Chinese suppliers could dump the stock protection stock intended for the US in other markets, which could disrupt the price stability in India. The global crop protection market also experienced a sharp drop in value terms in 2024, injured by poor agrochemical and commodity prices, high input costs and unfavorable weather conditions in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, according to Agbioinvestor, a Scotland-based consultant in the Agricultural Market Market. Read also | Tata Chemicals’ restructuring of Europe is helping, but the dull soda asmark a worrow Nuvama said in a April 24 report that the increased channel stock in domestic trade and a big demand in international markets for Rallis India in the short term growth triggers for the company. The broker has a ‘reduced’ rating on Rallis India, as it believes that the challenging business environment can limit substantial improvement in returning on fairness of the stock. Kotak Institutional Equity, which has a ‘selling’ recommendation on Rallis India, was marked in an April 14 report that “the (Fertilizer and Agricultural Chemicals) operating environment remains difficult, with the tariff war that is already complicating an already uncertain prospect (for the industry). To the reciprocal rates imposed by the US. In December 2022, while FIIs increased their stake to 11.41% from 7% in that period. have.