Main Sponsor Of Huddersfield Giants Acquired By Indian Listed Business

Yorkshire-based sealants and adhesives manufacturer, Bond It, has been acquired by India-based Astral Poly Technik in a £4.4m deal.

Based in Elland, Bond IT also specialises in producing waterproofing products, roofing compounds, polyurethanes, adhesive tapes and grouts. 

The Bond It brand, which is owned by Seal IT Services Limited, is also the main sponsor of the Huddersfield Giants Rugby Club.

Established in 1999, Gujarat-headquartered Astral Poly Technik is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and is the country’s leading and largest manufacturer of plumbing systems for both residential and industrial applications. It is one of India’s fastest growing companies and has a market capitalisation of approximately $650m.

Its joint venture with Bond It is the company’s second outside of India and will enable it to broaden the Yorkshire company’s sales network whilst providing a strategic foothold in the UK market.

Sandeep Engineer, Managing Director, Astral Poly Technik says, “The equity deal with Bond It represents the second joint venture for Astral Poly Technik outside of India.

“Having encountered Bond It's Indian operations, we were impressed with the company and with its product portfolio and India & Neighbouring countries have very big market for Bond it’s product. 

“We wanted to share in its success and also felt we could contribute to its growth through the provision of additional backing and resource.

“Astral has a very good name in projects. This product also has very good business opportunity in B to C business segment. Astral is known for its Quality Products and that is the reason why we selected a UK based company which has highest standard of Quality and state of the art Technology of its R&D division of Seal It Services.”

Speaking of the new joint venture, David Moore, managing director at Bond It, said: "The deal with Astral Poly Technik comes after extensive negotiation and represents a win-win situation for everyone involved.

"By enjoying access to Bond It's range, which includes plumbing solutions, our partners at Astral Poly Technik are able to complement their well-respected pipes and piping systems with a variety of related and equally high quality products.

"This will enable them to maximise some of the impressive opportunities offered by the Indian economy - one of the fastest growing in the world.

"For Bond It meanwhile, the additional backing will enable us to accelerate ambitious and global plans for the future, and to offer our growing customer base more products in more volumes than ever before.

"We will also be able to make further investments into those areas which make a real difference to customers - such as logistics, product development and sales support.”

Sandip Khroud is a member of Irwin Mitchell’s India Group. Headed up by Leeds-based Corporate Partner, Paul Johnson, the group advises Indian companies looking to invest or operate outside of India. It also advises UK companies attracting investment from India or seeking to assess Indian markets.

Earlier this year, Bond It announced further investment in a new cartridge filling, packing and labelling. This followed a £1m investment into its distribution infrastructure at the end of 2012 and a further investment of £250,000 in additional technology to produce powder-based products.