Welspun Group is one of India's fastest-growing global conglomerate with a leadership position in Line Pipes, Home Textiles, Infrastructure, Warehousing, Retail, Oil & Gas, Steel, Advanced Textiles and Flooring Solutions. A flagship company of the USD 2.7 billion Welspun Group, Welspun Corp Limited is a one-stop service provider of welded line pipes and a preferred supplier to several Fortune 100 oil & gas companies. Its facilities in India, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and USA manufacture and deliver some of the most critical pipelines in executing complex and large on-shore and off-shore projects.
Being among the top 3 welded line pipe manufacturers globally, they provide complete solutions and capabilities to manufacture a diverse variety of pipes. It has a diversified presence in over 50 countries. The Company was incorporated in 26th April, 1995 and is presently engaged in the business of Production and Coating of High Grade Submerged Arc Welded Pipes, Hot Rolled Steel Plates and Coils.
The Longitudinal (LSAW), Spiral (HSAW) and ERW / HFIW pipes, produced at its advanced state-of-the-art global manufacturing facilities in India, USA and Saudi Arabia meet stringent specifications. The Company's distinguished clients (Fortune 100 companies) comprise bellwethers of the oil and gas sector (Shell, Saudi Aramco, TOTAL, Chevron, Energy Transfer, South Oil Company, ExxonMobil, Kinder Morgan, TransCanada, Enbridge to name a few). The Company's local presences are spread across India, USA and the Saudi Arabia.
The Company has recently set up a $ 100 million manufacturing facility in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. The manufacturing facilities incorporate the hybrid JCO technology from Mannesmann Demag of Germany (SMS Meer). WGSRL has been the leader in quality, innovation and technology and enjoys distinction of supplying highest recognized X 80 grade and 56' outer diameter line pipes in the country.
The first HSAW mill of the company was commissioned at Dahej with capacity of 30,000 MTPA in the year 1997. After two years, in 1999, WGSRL had commissioned state of the art LSAW Mill at Dahej with the capacity 350,000 MTPA. During the year 2000, the company had started its coating Plant at Dahej, Joint Venture with Eupec, the 2nd largest coating company in the World. WGSRL became the first company from India to supply Pipes for the Offshore Projects in US during the year 2002. The Company had bagged an international order worth Rs.62 cr in the year 2002 for three layers PE and internal epoxy lining coated spiral pipes. During the year 2003, WGSRL had received the prestigious order from Petroiran Development Company, from Iran worth US 2 million. Welspun Gujarat forayed into weld pipes business in the year 2004 and also in the same year, the company had bagged Rs 4070 million Saw Pipes order in Libya.
Welspun Gujarat made tie-up with Eupec Group in the identical year of 2004. The company commissioned ERW mill in the year 2005 at the new location Anjar with the capacity of 250,000 MTPA. During the year 2006, two new HSAW Plants of 350,000 MTPA came to existence, such as Bending Facility and Additional Coating Plants. In the year 2007, the company's 43 MW captive power plant at Anjar, was made its commercial operation. During the same year 2007, the company had received prestigious pipeline orders worth Rs 1166 crores (USD 288 million) for the supply of line pipes overseas. During December of the identical year 2007, Welspun had acquired 76% interest in bath rug major Sorema, Tapates e Cortinas de Banho, SA (Sorema) of Portugal at an enterprise value of Rs. 600 Million.
WGSRL had bagged prestigious pipeline orders worth Rs. 1095 Crores in March of the year 2008 for the supply of Spiral Pipes in Northern Africa. The Company's 1.5 million tonne state-of-art Plate mill commenced its production in April of the year 2008. Part of the backward integration project of Welspun, the mill has the capacity to produce plates up to 4.5 meters wide and is all set to make a mark in the Company's operational capabilities.
WGSRL is prepared to meet the growing demand and is in a position to meet the stringent requirements and standards of high-grade line pipes. It plans to increase the capacity of its pipe plant by 75% to 1.75 million tons to meet growing demand for oil pipelines.
During the year 2016, the Company formed a 51:49 JV with Wasco Energy Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wah Seong Corporation Berhad, Malaysia. The LSAW Mill serviced global customers of Oil & Gas across a range of mid and large-sized orders and also successfully demonstrated the trial for 22' OD & 39 mm WT X65 (D/T Ratio of 14.3) to a prestigious client.
The LSAW Mill completed some major orders pertaining to Oil & Gas sector and the Spiral mill executed orders for the domestic water sector in FY 2016.
In FY 15-16, Spiral mill executed orders pertaining to the Water/Irrigation segment.
During FY 15-16, the spiral mill has produced a total quantity of 200K MT and Coating of 2.48 Million sq.mtrs for Saudi Facilities.
The Hon'ble National Company Law Tribunal, Ahmedabad Bench vide its order dated May 10, 2019 sanctioned the Scheme of Amalgamation of Welspun Pipes Limited (WPL or the Transferor Company) with Welspun Corp Limited (WCL or the Transferee Company) and their respective shareholders and creditors. The Scheme has become effective on May 10, 2019, being the date of sanction of the Scheme by the NCLT. Pursuant to the Scheme, all the assets and and liabilities of the Transferor Company as on the Appointed Date of January 25, 2019 stood transferred to the Company and in consideration thereof 110,449,818 fully paid up equity share of Rs 5 each of the Transferee Company shall be issued and allotted as fully paid up to the equity shareholders of the Transferor Company in proportion of their holding in the Transferor Company.
The Board of Directors, subject to approval of the shareholders and other regulatory approvals, have approved buyback of the Company's fully paid equity shares of Rs 5 each (Equity Share) at a price to be finalized by the Buyback Committee subject to a maximum price of Rs 140 per equity share payable in cash, for a maximum aggregate amount up to Rs 3,900 million (excluding transaction costs), being less than 25% of the total paid-up equity share capital and free reserves (including securities premium account) of the Company as on March 31, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as the Buyback) from the shareholders of the Company on a proportionate basis through the tender offer route. The total number of equity shares to be bought back would hence be 27,857,142 Equity Shares (representing 10.50% of the total paid up equity share capital of the Company) or such other number depending upon the final Buyback Price fixed by the Buyback Committee. The Promoters and Promoter Group of the Company have expressed their intention to tender up to a maximum of 13,260,000 Equity Shares (aggregating to 5% of the equity share capital of the Company).
During the year 2019, the Board of the Company's wholly owned subsidiary viz. Welspun Tradings Limited approved closure of business operation of its step-down subsidiary i.e. Welspun Middle East DMCC (WME DMCC) operating in the United Arab Emirates. Necessary steps to voluntarily wind up business operations of WME DMCC have been initiated.
In FY'19, the Company commissioned the HSAW plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and increased the level of production at mill in Saudi Arabia. The Hon'ble National Company Law Tribunal, Ahmedabad Bench vide its order dated May 10, 2019 sanctioned the Scheme of Amalgamation of Welspun Pipes Limited (WPL' or the Transferor Company') with Welspun Corp Limited (WCL' or the Transferee Company') and their respective shareholders and creditors (the Scheme'). The Scheme has become effective on May 10, 2019, being the date of sanction of the Scheme by the NCLT.
In FY'20, it ventured into the Ductile lron Pipe segment through a Greenfield facility. In FY 2021, it entered into the business of manufacturing of TMT Rebars and Stainless Steel, Tubes & Pipes, as a part of growth and diversification strategy.
In Mar' 22, the Scheme of Arrangement between Welspun Corp Limited (WCL/ Parent Company) and Welspun Steel Limited for transfer and vesting of Demerged Undertaking of the Demerged Company i.e Welspun Steel Limited (WSL) into the Resulting Company i.e. Welspun Corp Limited was effective from April 1, 2021.
During the year 2022-23, Big Shot Infra Facilities Private Limited, the wholly owned subsidiary of the Company acquired Sintex Prefab Infra Limited ('SPIL') and resulting through the Scheme of Arrangement, Big Shot was merged with SPIL effective from February 24, 2023. Upon merger, SPIL became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. Similarly, Propel Plastic Products Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company acquired Sintex-BAPL Limited in Mar'23 and as a result, Propel merged with SBAPL effective from March 29, 2023 and was made a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company effective from the said date.
The Company's wholly owned subsidiaries commissioned state-of-the-art Blast Furnace, Sinter plant, Coke Oven, TMT Bars and DI Pipes facilities during FY 2022-23. During the year 2023, the Company acquired specified assets of ABG Shipyard, one of the largest shipyard infrastructure companies in India.