Calcutta, Oct. 7: Eveready Industries India Limited today completed the financial closure of BPL Soft Energy Systems Limited (BSESL) ? the battery business of BPL Limited ? and formally took control of the company.
Eveready has renamed BSESL as Powercell Industries India Limited, which will remain its 100 per cent subsidiary. Eveready has spent Rs 67 crore (Rs 45 crore for shares and another Rs 22 crore to meet liabilities) to acquire BSESL.
“It is a good acquisition for us,” Eveready executive vice-chairman and managing director Deepak Khaitan said today.
Gautam Basu, who was heading BSESL, will continue as the CEO of Powercell Industries.
BSESL produces metal jacket D batteries at its Maddur factory in Karnataka under the brand names Shakti and Powercell. While the price of Shakti batteries is Rs 8 per piece, the price of Powercell is Rs 10 per unit. The total capacity of the factory is 240 million units per annum.
Khaitan said metal jacket batteries under the Shakti brand would be converted into paper jacket batteries, which would lower the cost of production. Eveready makes only paper jacket batteries.
The metal jacket batteries under the brand name Powercell will not be converted into paper jacket ones. These batteries will be exported under the brand name Lava. Eveready cannot use its brand name for batteries outside India and Nepal and so it has to export batteries under the brand name Lava.