DIC India Limited (formerly known as Coates India Limited) was incorporated as a Public Limited Company on April 02, 1947 by the Founder, Manish Bhatia. The name of the Company was changed in August 2004 from Coates of India Limited to DIC India Limited.
The Company is a subsidiary of DIC Asia Pacific Pte Limited, Singapore and the Ultimate Holding Company is DIC Corporation, Japan. The Company is engaged in manufacturing of printing inks, which covers newsprint ink, offset ink and liquid ink used in newspapers, other publications and packaging industries. It also provides lamination adhesive. The Company has four manufacturing plants
one each at Kolkata (West Bengal), Noida (Uttar Pradesh), Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Bangalore (Karnataka).
The Company went public in 1962. Coates Brothers, UK, has a 51% stake in the Company. The company is a part of Dainippon Ink & Chemicals Inc. (DIC), Japan. DIC along with its subsidiaries are the world leaders in printing inks with global market share of nearly 40%.
During the year 2001 Coates India made a restructuring in their organisation. As per the restructuring DIC is in the process of reorgnising its holdings into single entity viz DIC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. The 51% stake conssiting of 3511624 shares held by Coates Brother Plc UK has been acquired Sun Chemical group B.V., in October,2001. Consequent to this acquisition of the shares,the total equity stake held by Sun Chemical group in the company went up to 59.42%.
In the second phase DIC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd has acquired the entire stake of 59.42% of the paid up capital from Sun Chemical group B.V.,through an inter-se transfer within the Group Holding. As on December,2002 DIC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd holds 59.54% stake in Coates of India Ltd.
The first unit to manufacture printing inks, surface coatings and allied products came up in 1947 in Calcutta, and other manufacturing units were established in Chennai (1958), Mumbai (1960), Delhi (1966) and Noida (1990) in a phased manner, to cater to the demands of the local market.
Coates has diversified into the production of industrial adhesives for which the technology was supplied by Bostik, UK which commenced its commercial production in Jul.'93. It undertook a chip project for the in-house manufacture of certain intermediate products. This project lead to a significant improvement in the quality and productivity of the company's core business of inks.
In March 2001 the company has acquired the entire share capital of Rohit Industries Pvt Ltd with a view to utilise its resources in an effective manner. Rohit has now become a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. The installed capacity of Printing Inks was increased from 15060 Tonnes to 17280 Tonnes.
The company has expanded the installed capacity of Printing Ink during the year 2002-03 by 2124 TPA and with this expansion the total capacity has risen to 23376 TPA.
During the year 2004, the Company set up a state of the art new Lamination Adhesives Project within the existing DCIL's factory site at
Bangalore with the technical support of DIC, Japan, completed trial runs and commenced commercial production in December, 2004.
As on 31st December, 2003, DIG Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., (DAPPL) Singapore held 4,312,888 shares in its own name and 215,000 shares acquired from the market were held in the name of DSP Merill Lynch Ltd on behalf of DAPPL. During the year 2003-04, Company, however, received the approval from the Reserve Bank of India dated 25th June, 2004 for transfer of 215,000 shares held by DSP Merill Lynch Ltd on behalf of DAPPL. Thus, after the transfer of shares, DAPPL is holding 4,527,888 shares representing 65.76% of the paid up equity capital of Company.
In the Board Meeting dated 6th February, 2007 of the Board of Directors of Rohit, approved the merger of the Company with its holding Company, DIC India Limited. The Company also approved the merger of its subsidiary, Rohit with the Company. The Company had since received the certified copy of the Court Order dated 28th February, 2008 from the Hon'ble High Court, Calcutta sanctioning the
Scheme of Amalgamation with effect from 1st April, 2007.
The Company commissioned the Liquid Ink Mother Plant (LIMP) at Noida, UP on 25th September, 2008 for which the Company had come out with the aforesaid Rights Issue.
During the year 2010, the Company sold its entire shareholding in the wholly owned subsidiary, DIC Coatings India Limited, to The Valspar (Singapore) Corporation Pte Limited. Thereafter the Board of Directors of DIC India Limited in its meeting held on 26th May, 2010 approved the sale of the entire shareholding in its wholly owned unlisted subsidiary, DIC Coatings India Limited, to The Valspar (Singapore) Corporation Pte Limited for an aggregate consideration of Rs.400,680,362. With effect from 1st June, 2010, DIC Coatings Limited ceased to be a subsidiary of Company.
The Company set up a new plant for Lamination Adhesive at Bangaluru in 2012 which costed Rs.29.172 Crore. The Company had closed down its manufacturing activity at its Mumbai Unit at Chandivalli Farm The divestment process also restarted with the divestment of Coal India Limited whereby the Government of India's stake in Coal India Limited (CIL) came down from 89.65% to 79.65%..
The Company opened Regional Technical Centre in 2019. In 2023, Company opened a new production plant in Sayakha district of Gujarat.