Four Indian seafood companies are trying to cash in on the
booming shrimp exports by going for an IPO. In last few years, Indian seafood
exports have been recouping losses suffered due to the punitive tariff imposed
by the US in 2004 and the decline in capture fisheries with the help of
vannamei shrimp production, which is cheaper than the traditional black tiger.
According to trade sources, Indian aquaculture production is
estimated to touch a record seven lakh tonne during the current fiscal and
reach one million tonne by 2020.
Nekkanti Sea Foods ( MD - Nekkanti VenkataRao), Devi
Seafoods (MD - Potra Brahmanandam), and
Sandhya Marines (MD - Kondragunta
Venkata Prasad) have filed draft prospectuses with capital markets
regulator SEBI. Another company, Devi Fisheries (MD - SuryaRao Yarlagadda), is
also reported to be planning for a public listing. Most of the leading shrimp
exporters are based in Andhra Pradesh where majority of the farms are located.
Devi Seafoods plans to raise `900 crore through an initial
public offering while Sandhya Marines is looking to raise around Rs 500-600
crore. Nekkanti plans fresh issuance of shares worth `250 crore, besides an
offer for sale of up to 80 lakh equity shares by the existing shareholders.
Nekkanti Venkat Rao, managing director of Nekkanti Sea Foods
told FE that it makes sense to go public as the industry is worth more than Rs
30,000 crore .
“India is moving towards the second phase of growth which
will be driven more by value addition. As we move from a commodity driven
business to more of a value added business it is easy for a listed company
,which is more transparent and has better corporate governance, to do business
with leading global companies,” he added.
He feels that India can be the shrimp capital of the world
just like Norway is for Atlantic Salmon. “As the country grows, it becomes a
natural supplier for the species and the whole demand gravitates towards that
particular country. India has already 20-22% of the world shrimp trade. There
are multiple factors that are driving India’s growth,” he added.
Nekkanti Sea Foods is among India’s leading processors and
exporters of processed frozen shrimp products with over three decades of
operations. In fiscal 2017, they had a volume share in the Indian shrimp
industry of 2.49% with a value share of 3.31% of the total exports in such
periods ,according to a Crisil report.
Devi Sea Foods was the second-largest exporter (in value
terms) of seafood as well as for frozen shrimps from India during financial
year 2016-2017.
However, entry of new players and countries in the supply
chain has led to a glut in the market with shrimp prices in free fall. Some of
the Indian farmers have not seeded their farms after incurring huge losses in
the first quarter harvest.
Venkat Rao says that the potential is still huge as the
country exports a large share of its production to countries like Vietnam for
re-export after value addition. He believes that consolidation and moving up
the value chain would help Indian processors garner more market share in the
coming days.
Source: Financial Express
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