The Gurgaon-headquartered refrigerant maker took control of DuPont’s Dymel business on January 1, explaining that its intention is to set up its own manufacturing facility for pharmaceutical grade HFC 134a, or 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane.
HFC 134a is a hydrofluorocarbon propellant used in metered dose inhalers to deliver active pharmaceutical ingredients (API).
The chemical belongs to a class of compounds used in aerosols in place of environmentally damaging chlorofluorocarbon-based propellants, use of which has been phased out over the past decade.
SRF said the deal provides immediate access to DuPont’s customers and enables “instant entry into the niche pharmaceutical segment at a global level.”
The Indian firm already operates two HCF production sites in the country – in Rajasthan and Gurjarat – however buying the DuPont business will help it “utilise existing HFC 134a facilities better” and become one of the world’s few remaining suppliers according to managing director, Ashish Bharat Ram.
Ram added that: "The growth in the Metered Dose Inhalers (MDI) sector is expected to be reasonably robust in the years to come and with India playing a major role in this sector we are ideally positioned to take benefit of this opportunity.”
News of the acquisition was accompanied by a surge in SRF’s share price on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), from INR879.65 to INR922.4.
Divestiture and spin out
The divested unit was part of DuPont’s performance chemicals division, which itself is due to be spun off as a separate company called Chemours.
According to a plan detailed by DuPont last month, “fluoroproducts” like Dymel contributed 36%, or $2.4bn, of the $6.9bn revenue generated by the divisions that will become Chemours in 2013.