Aditya Birla Group

Company Profile

Publication Date: 17 Mar 2010

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Aditya Birla Group

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Aditya Birla Group
TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Company Overview..............................................................................................4
Key Facts...............................................................................................................4
Business Description...........................................................................................5
History...................................................................................................................7
Key Employees...................................................................................................10
Key Employee Biographies................................................................................11
Major Products and Services............................................................................14
Top Competitors.................................................................................................15
Locations and Subsidiaries...............................................................................16

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Aditya Birla Group
Company Overview

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Aditya Birla Group (Aditya Birla) is an industrial conglomerate engaged in manufacturing and supplying
of aluminum and copper products, cement, carbon black, textiles, fertilizers, chemicals, insulators,
fatty alcohol and fatty acids. The company also engages in software, business process outsourcing
(BPO), finance and insurance, telecom and retail businesses. Aditya Birla primarily operates in Asia,
the Americas and Europe. It is headquartered in Mumbai, India, and employs 130,000 people.

KEY FACTS

Head Office Aditya Birla Group

Aditya Birla Centre
1st Floor C Wing
S K Ahire Marg Worli
Mumbai 400 030
Maharashtra
IND
Phone 91 22 6652 5000
Fax 91 22 6652 5741
Web Address http://www.adityabirla.com
Employees 130,000

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Aditya Birla Group
Business Description

BUSINESS DESCRIPTION

Aditya Birla Group is a privately held multinational corporation engaged in diversified businesses.
The company has a presence in 25 countries including India, the UK, Germany, Hungary, Brazil,
Italy, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Australia, the US, Canada, Egypt, China, Thailand, Laos,
Indonesia, Philippines, Dubai, Singapore, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia and Korea.

The company primarily operates through six subsidiaries: Grasim Industries (Grasim), Hindalco,
Aditya Birla Nuvo, Aditya Birla Retail, Tanfac Industries and Essel Mining & Industries.

Grasim, a flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, is engaged in manufacturing textiles, viscose
staple fiber (VSF), cement and chemicals. Its core businesses are VSF and cement. In cement,
Grasim along with its subsidiary UltraTech Cement has a capacity of 45.7 million tpa and is one of
the leading cement players in India. Textiles Grasim has a nation-wide retail network and also caters
to international fashion houses in US and UK.

The subsidiary company, Hindalco, operates through aluminum and copper divisions. The aluminum
division's product range includes alumina chemicals; and primary aluminum ingots, billets, wire rods,
rolled products, extrusions, foils and alloy wheels. The copper division produces copper cathodes,
continuous cast copper rods and precious metals. It also provides sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid,
di-ammonium phosphate, other phosphatic fertilizers and phospho-gypsum.

Aditya Birla Nuvo is engaged in the business of garments, viscose filament yarn, carbon black,
textiles and insulators. The company is also involved in life insurance, mutual funds, equity advisory
and investment management, application development, maintenance and enhancement solutions,
customer relations management (CRM), integrated marketing services, knowledge process
outsourcing, non-life insurance advisory and broking services, and apparel retail and exports
businesses.

Aditya Birla Retail owns and operates a chain of retail stores under the brand more with two formats,
supermarket and hypermarket. Its supermarkets offering fruits and vegetables, groceries, personal
care, home care, general merchandise and a basic range of apparels. Currently, there are over 640
more supermarkets. It operates hypermarkets under the brand name more.

Tanfac Industries is a joint venture company promoted by the Aditya Birla Group and the Tamil Nadu
Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO). The company manufactures and supplies chemicals
such as aluminum fluoride, anhydrous hydrogen fluoride and sulphuric acid. The fluorine based
chemicals are applied in industries such as aluminum smelting, petroleum refining, refrigerant gases,
steel re-rolling, glass, ceramics, sugar, fertilizers and heavy water. Its specialty chemicals are used
as intermediates in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals drugs and agrochemicals.

Aditya Birla Group's subsidiary, Essel Mining & Industries, is an iron ore mining company that
produces noble ferro alloys. The company’s products include calibrated iron ore lump, inputs for

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Business Description

steel making through DRI / BF process, and iron ore fines, inputs for sinters and pellets, used for
making steel.

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Aditya Birla Group
History

HISTORY

The Birla Group of companies was founded by Mr. Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857. In 1919, Mr.
Ghanshyamdas Birla set up the first Birla jute mill.

Grasim was incorporated in 1947 and commenced operations with a small rayon weaving unit at
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. Hindalco was incorporated in 1958.

Four years later, in 1962 Hindalco commenced production at its aluminium complex at Renukoot,
Uttar Pradesh, India.

The company acquired The Indian Rayon Corporation in 1966. In the following year, in 1967, Hindalco
started a captive power plant at Renusagar, India.

In 1969, Aditya Birla established Indo-Thai Synthetics Company, the group's first overseas company.

P.T. Elegant Textiles was established to manufacture spun yarn in 1973, which was the first venture
in Indonesia.

In the next year, in 1974, Thai Rayon, the company’s Viscose Rayon Staple Fiber business was
incorporated in Thailand.

The Indo Phil Group of companies, the first Indo-Filipino joint venture commenced production of
spun yarn in 1975.

After two years, in 1977, Pan Century Edible Oils was incorporated in Malaysia. The first carbon
black company, Thai Carbon Black, was incorporated in Thailand in 1978.

In 1982, P.T Indo Bharat Rayon, a producer of viscose staple fiber (VSF) was established in Indonesia.

Thai Polyphosphates and Chemicals commenced production of sodium phosphates in Thailand in

1984. The Birla Growth Fund was set up to finance industrial equipment, plant and machinery and
consumer durables, and also for stock market operations in 1986.

In the following year, in 1987, Indian Rayon was renamed as Indian Rayon and Industries, and Thai
Acrylic Fibre was incorporated to produce fiber and tow.

Aditya Birla entered into a joint venture with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation to set up a
three-million-tonne refinery, Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals (MRPL), at Mangalore,
Karnataka, in 1988.

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History

Thai Peroxide commenced manufacturing of hygrogen peroxide solutions in Thailand in 1989. In

1991, Pan Century Oleochemicals commenced production of fatty acids and glycerine in Malaysia.

In 1992, Thai Epoxy and Allied Products commenced production of epoxy resins in Thailand.

The Birla Growth Fund was renamed as Birla Global Finance in 1994. At the same time, Alexandria
Carbon Black, the first joint venture with the Egyptian government was established.

In 1995, the company entered into telecommunications sector through a joint venture with AT&T
(USA). Thai Sulphites & Chemicals was incorporated to manufacture sodium sulphite and sodium
metabisulphite in the same year.

In the following year, in 1996, all group companies are consolidated under the umbrella of the Aditya
Birla Group. A new corporate logo, Aditya, the rising sun was launched in the same year. P.T. Indo
Liberty Textiles was incorporated to manufacture yarn in Indonesia in 1996.

In 1998, the company formed a 50:50 joint venture company with Tembec of Canada, called A.V.
Cell Inc., to supply pulp for the company’s VSF operations. In the same year, Grasim acquired
Dharani Cement and Shree Digvijay Cement.

In 1999, the company entered into a joint venture with financial services company Sun Life of Canada,
as part of the overall restructuring of the company’s financial services business.

Indian Rayon acquired Madura Garments and selected overseas brand rights in 2000. In the same
year, Hindalco acquired Indal, and the merger of Birla AT&T and Tata Cellular was completed.

In 2001, Birla Consultancy & Software Services spun off and became a separate entity called Birla
Technologies. At the same time, Indian Rayon acquired a stake in PSI Data Systems.

In the next year, in 2002, Grasim divested its Gwalior unit to Melodeon Exports, and consolidates
textile operations at a single location in Bhiwani, Madhya Pradesh, which manufactures both Grasim
and Graviera brands. In the same year, PSI Data Systems acquired Birla Technologies, and Indal
acquired a controlling stake in Anapurna Foils.

The company acquired the Mount Gordon Copper mines in Australia in 2003. In the same year,
Indian Rayon acquired TransWorks, an Indian ITES (information technology enabled services) and
BPO (business process outsourcing) company, Birla Copper acquired the Nifty Copper Mines in
Australia, and Indian Rayon launched its insulators joint venture with NGK Insulators, Japan.

In 2005, Aditya Birla set up an aluminum project in Orissa. At the same time, the company signed
an agreement to acquire St Anne Nackawic Pulp Mill, Canada. Indian Rayon was renamed as Aditya
Birla Nuvo in the same year.

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History

In the following year, in 2006, Hindalco entered into a joint venture with Almex USA. At the same
time, Grasim Industries, India; Thai Rayon Public Company, Thailand and P.T. Indo Bharat Rayon,
Indonesia formed a joint venture with Hubei Jing Wei Chemical Fibre Company, China, for viscose
staple fibre (VSF).

Novelis became a Hindalco subsidiary in 2007. In this year, Grasim sold its entire equity stake in
Shree Digvijay Cement Company (SDCC) to Cimpor. Mr. Ajay Srinivasan was appointed as Chief
Executive Officer of Financial Services and Director of Corporate Strategy and Business Development
and Mr. Pankaj Razdan as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Financial Services at Aditya Birla Group
in 2007.

In 2008, Aditya Birla increased its stake from 75% to 95% in the two joint venture companies, AV
Cell and AV Nackawic in Canada. Later in the same year, Idea Cellular and TM International acquired
Spice Group stake in Spice Communications and merged Spice with Idea.

In April 2009, the company’s lifestyle brand, Van Heusen, launched its exclusive store in Chennai,
India.

The Grasim Industries Limited and Samruddhi Cement Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Grasim
(“Samruddhi”), announced to demerge the cement business of Grasim into Samruddhi in October
2009. Samruddhi will issue 1 new equity share to Grasim shareholders for every equity share they
hold in Grasim. Grasim shareholders will directly hold 35% of Samruddhi, and Grasim’s stake will
be diluted to 65% on completion of the demerger.

Aditya Birla Minacs, a global business solutions company announced its acquisition of UK-based
Compass BPO Ltd, a leading finance and accounting (F&A) services provider in March 2010.Through
this acquisition, Minacs will takeover all the operations of Compass across the UK, US, Middle East
and India.

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Key Employees

KEY EMPLOYEES

Name Job Title Board

Ajay Srinivasan Chief Executive Officer, Financial Services Aditya Executive Board
Birla Group
D. Bhattacharya Managing Director, Hindalco Industries and Vice Executive Board
Chairman, Novelis
Bharat K. Singh Director Executive Board
K. K. Maheshwari Head, Global Chemical Business, Global Trading Executive Board
Business and Management Services Division
Vikram Rao Director Executive Board
Kumar Mangalam Birla Chairman Non Executive Board
Santrupt Misra Director Non Executive Board
S. Misra Director Non Executive Board
Sanjeev Aga Managing Director, Idea Cellular Limited and Non Executive Board
Director, Aditya Birla
Shailendra K. Jain Whole-time Director and President, Grasim Non Executive Board
Industries

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Key Employee Biographies

KEY EMPLOYEE BIOGRAPHIES

Ajay Srinivasan

Board: Executive Board

Job Title: Chief Executive Officer, Financial Services Aditya Birla Group
Since: 2007

Mr. Srinivasan has been the Chief Executive Officer - Financial Services at Aditya Birla Group since
2007. Prior to joining the Aditya Birla Group, Mr. Srinivasan was the Chief Executive, Fund
Management at Prudential Corporation Asia. Mr. Srinivasan holds a BA with Honours in Economics
from St Stephens College, University of Delhi and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad.

D. Bhattacharya

Board: Executive Board

Job Title: Managing Director, Hindalco Industries and Vice Chairman, Novelis

Mr. Bhattacharya serves as a Director at the company and the Managing Director at Hindalco
Industries, Vice Chairman at Novelis and also heads Aditya Birla Group's non-ferrous metals business.
He is the Chairman of Utkal Alumina International Limited and of Aditya Birla Minerals Limited, a
wholly-owned copper subsidiary of Hindalco in Australia, which runs two copper mines — one in
Nifty and the other one in Mt. Gordon. Before taking over as a Managing Director at Hindalco
Industries Limited, Mr. Bhattacharya was the Managing Director at erstwhile Indo Gulf Corporation
Limited. Mr. Bhattacharya earned a B. Tech (Hons.) in Chemical Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur,
and a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry from Presidency College, Kolkata.

Bharat K. Singh

Board: Executive Board

Job Title: Director

Dr. Singh currently serves as a Director at Aditya Birla Group. He joined the Aditya Birla Group in
1996. Dr. Singh has over 39 years of experience in several operational and corporate management
functions in companies such as the ITC Group, Sandoz, RPG Group and McDonalds. He is a
mechanical engineer with a master's degree in business management from I.I.M, Calcutta and a
doctorate from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

K. K. Maheshwari

Board: Executive Board

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Key Employee Biographies

Job Title: Head, Global Chemical Business, Global Trading Business and Management Services
Division

Mr. Maheshwari serves as a Director at Aditya Birla Group and also heads the company’s Global
Chemical Business, Global Trading Business and Management Services Division. In 1988, he moved
to Thailand and served at Thai Polyphosphate and Chemicals Co. and Thai Organic Chemicals Co.
He moved back to India in early 2001 to look after the Group's Chemical Business in India. In 2007,
he became Head of the trading business. He is the president of the Association of Man-Made Fibre
Industry of India, member of the executive committee of the Indian Chemical Council and member
of the National Chemical Committee, FICCI. Prior to joining Aditya Birla Group, Mr.Maheshwari held
senior positions in finance function with Blow Plast Ltd and Zenith Ltd

Vikram Rao

Board: Executive Board

Job Title: Director

Mr. Rao serves as a Director at Aditya Birla Group and heads the Acrylic Fibre Business and
supervises the overseas spinning business of the Group. Mr. Rao joined the Group in 1999 from
Arvind Mills Limited where he was the President of the Shirting Division and Bed and Bath Projects.
Mr. Rao started his career with Madura Coats in 1975 as a management trainee and, over the years,
became the President of the Textile Division, reporting to the Chairman of Madura Coats. Mr. Rao
holds degrees in chemical engineering and business management.

Kumar Mangalam Birla

Board: Non Executive Board

Job Title: Chairman

Mr. Birla serves as the Chairman at Aditya Birla Group. He holds several key positions on various
regulatory and professional boards. He is a director of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve
Bank of India and chairman of the Staff Sub-Committee of the Central Board of the Reserve Bank
of India. He serves on the Prime Minister of India’s Advisory Council on Trade and Industry. He is
the chairman of the Board of Trade constituted by the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, also
chairman of the Ministry of Company Affairs’ Advisory Committee.

Additionally, he is on the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); the Apex
Advisory Council of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, New Delhi and
the Advisory Council for the Centre for Corporate Governance.

Santrupt Misra

Board: Non Executive Board

Job Title: Director

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Key Employee Biographies

Dr. Misra serves as a Director at the company and also on the board of Aditya Birla Science &
Technology Company, which is part of the Aditya Birla Group. Dr. Misra has had full-time professional
work experience with the J.K. Group, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Hindustan Lever
Limited. He has also been a trainer and consultant to about 40 organisations in India. Dr. Misra has
published one book and several articles. He has won a Commonwealth Scholarship in 1990 for three
years and was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship in the year 2000.

Sanjeev Aga

Board: Non Executive Board

Job Title: Managing Director, Idea Cellular Limited and Director, Aditya Birla

Mr. Aga currently serves as Managing Director at Idea Cellular Limited and a Director on the Board
of the Aditya Birla Management Corporation, and he is the Chairperson of the Cellular Operators
Association of India. In a business career commencing in 1973, Mr. Aga has held senior positions
in Asian Paints, Chellarams (Nigeria), and Jenson & Nicholson. In 1987, he joined Blow Plast to
head the furniture business, was made Chief Executive of Mattel Toys in 1990, and in 1993 was
appointed Managing Director of Blow Plast with multi-business responsibility including the flagship
VIP luggage business.

In 1998, he was appointed as CEO of the Aditya Birla Group's telecom JV, Birla AT&T Ltd. From
2005 until 2006, Mr. Aga was Managing Director of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd., a conglomerate whose
interests span diverse group businesses. Mr. Aga is an Honours graduate in Physics from St.
Stephen's College, Delhi and a post graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

Shailendra K. Jain

Board: Non Executive Board

Job Title: Whole-time Director and President, Grasim Industries

Mr. Jain currently serves as the Whole-time Director and President at Grasim Industries Ltd. He
heads the Group's pulp and staple fibre business in India and globally. Mr. Jain joined the Aditya
Birla Group in 1965, after completing his post-graduation (S.M.) from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, USA. Mr. Jain is also a B.Sc. (gold medalist) from Vikram University, Ujjain and a
B.E. Hons (gold medalist) from the University of Mumbai.

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Major Products and Services

MAJOR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Aditya Birla Group is an India-based diversified company. The company's products and services
include the following:

Products:

Aluminum
Carbon black
Cement
Chemicals
Copper
Fertilizers
Insulators
Iron
Manganese
Textiles
FMCG goods

Services:

Business process outsourcing (BPO)

Finance and insurance
Telecommunication services

Brands:

Aditya Birla
Idea
UltraTech

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Top Competitors

TOP COMPETITORS

The following companies are the major competitors of Aditya Birla Group

Tata Group
Reliance Communications Ltd
Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd
Bharti AXA Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
Satyam Computer Services Ltd

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Aditya Birla Group
Locations and Subsidiaries

LOCATIONS AND SUBSIDIARIES

Head Office
Aditya Birla Group
Aditya Birla Centre
1st Floor C Wing
S K Ahire Marg Worli
Mumbai 400 030
Maharashtra
IND
P:91 22 6652 5000
F:91 22 6652 5741
http://www.adityabirla.com

Other Locations and Subsidiaries

Grasim Industries Limited Hindalco Industries Limited

Birlagram Century Bhavan 3rd floor
Nagda 456 331 Dr Annie Besant Road
Madhya Pradesh Worli
IND Mumbai 400 030
Maharashtra
IND

Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited Aditya Birla Retail Limited

Indian Rayon Compound Aditya Birla Centre
Veraval 362 266 Sahar Airport Road
Gujarat Andheri (East)
IND Mumbai 400099
Maharashtra
IND

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