Jyothy Laboratories will be debt-free by March 2020 and will be in a comfortable position for a decent acquisition next year, said Ullas Kamath, Joint MD of the company.

The company is in focus as around 1.55 crore shares have traded in a block. Throwing more light on this, Kamath said promoters have sold 4 percent of the shares of their holding to pay the loan against shares that they had taken at the time of Henkel acquisition.

The loan was taken to invest in Jyothy Labs in 2012-13 against the shares they had pledged while taking the loan, said Kamath. Post this about 6 percent of their holding will be under pledge, he said, adding the promoter stake has come down to 63.4 percent now.

The buyers were a consortium of best of the domestic funds, said Kamath. “We felt, to have a quality investor is very important for any company to grow. Looking at the quality of investors we felt it was the right time to give, especially when they approached us,” he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

On the earnings front, he said quarter by quarter growth has been improving and this trend is expected to continue for December and March quarters as well. He is hopeful of double-digit growth in the household insecticide segment in the coming quarters.

Kamath said till March 2020, the company plans to consolidate the existing portfolio of brands because "it is right time to focus on our own brands and grow market share but next year would be ready for inorganic expansion."

First Published:Nov 1, 2019 2:52 PM IST