Aditya Birla Group

Aditya Birla Group

Type	Private
Industry	Conglomerate
Founded	1857^[1]
Founder	Seth Shiv Narayan Birla
Headquarters	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Kumar Mangalam Birla (Chairman)
Products	Metals, cements, textiles, chemicals, agribusiness, carbon black, mining, wind power, insulators, telecommunications, financial services, information technology, retail, trading solutions
Revenue	US$ 45 billion (2014)^[2]
Number of employees	136,000 (2012)^[3]
Subsidiaries	List of subsidiaries
Website	www.adityabirla.com

The Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate named after Aditya Vikram Birla, headquartered in the Aditya Birla Centre in Worli, Mumbai, India.^[4]^[5] It operates in 40 countries with more than 120,000 employees worldwide.^[6] The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857. The group interests in sectors such as viscose staple fibre, metals, cement (largest in India), viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbon black, chemicals, fertilisers, insulators, financial services, telecom (third largest in India), BPO and IT services.

The group had a revenue of approximately US$45 billion in year 2014.^[2]^[7] With a gross revenue of USD 45 Billion (in 2014) it is the third-largest Indian private sector conglomerate behind Tata Group with revenue of just over US$100 billion and RIL with revenue of US$74 billion.

Non-ferrous metals

Main articles: Hindalco and Novelis

The Group's non-ferrous metals are under Hindalco Industries.^[8] Its manufacturing locations are primarily in India and it owns mines in Australia. On 11 February 2007, the company entered into an agreement to acquire the Canadian company Novelis for U$6 billion,^[9] making the combined entity the world's largest rolled-aluminium producer. On 15 May 2007, the acquisition was completed with Novelis shareholders receiving $44.93 per outstanding share of common stock. The Group plans to close a part of its aluminum foil making mill in UK and shift that to its plant near Nagpur.^[10]^[11]

Hindalco makes alumina chemicals, primary aluminum, rolled products, alloy wheels, roofing sheets, wire rods, cast copper rods, copper cathodes and several other products.^[12]

Cement

Main articles: UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries

The Group's cement business was earlier under Grasim Industries and UltraTech Cement. The two entities have now been merged into UltraTech Cement to form India's largest cement company. UltraTech Cement was acquired from L&T in 2004.

Carbon black

After purchasing Columbian Chemicals Co (Press Release), the Group is now the largest manufacturer of Carbon Black worldwide.^[13]

Textile business

The Aditya Birla Group is the world's largest producer of Viscose staple fiber industry.^[14] It operates from India, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and China. It owns the Birla Cellulose brand. Apart from viscose staple fiber, the group also owns acrylic fiber businesses in Egypt and Thailand, viscose filament yarn businesses and spinning mills in India and South East Asia. The group has pulp and plantation interests in Canada and Laos. Its two companies i.e. Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd. and Grasim Bhiwani Textiles Ltd. which is a subsidiary of Grasim Industries are in textile business.

Telecom Services

Main article: Idea Cellular

Aditya Birla Group is the majority shareholder of Idea Cellular.^[15] Idea Cellular was started as a joint venture with the group, AT&T and the Tata Group. After an IPO on the Indian stock markets, Idea Cellular now accounts for a third of the group's market capitalization. The company is headquartered in Mumbai.

Financial Services

Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG)

Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) is the umbrella brand for all the financial services business of The Aditya Birla Group. ABFSG ranks among the top 5 fund managers in India (excluding LIC) with an AUM of USD 23 billion. Having a strong presence across the life insurance, asset management, lending (excl. Housing), housing finance, equity & commodity broking, wealth management and distribution, online money management portal – MyUniverse, general insurance advisory and private equity and health insurance businesses. ABFSG is committed to serve the end-to-end financial services needs of its retail and corporate customers. In FY 2013-14, ABFSG reported consolidated revenue from these businesses at just under 7000 crs. and profits of about 750 crs. Anchored by over 14,000 employees and trusted by over 6 million customers, ABFSG has a nationwide reach through 1,500 points of presence and about 130,000 agents / channel partners.