Borosil Renewables, an India-based solar glass manufacturer, has completed the acquisition of a 86% stake in Interfloat Corporation and Glasmanufaktur Brandenbur (GMB), entities engaged in the solar glass manufacturing business, sales, and distribution, in Europe.

The acquisition was conducted through Borosil’s wholly-owned subsidiaries overseas, Geosphere Glassworks GmbH and Laxman AG. With the acquisition, Borosil’s solar glass manufacturing capacity will grow to 750 tons per day (TPD) from 450 TPD, an increase of 66%.

Both GMB and Interfloat have now become step-down subsidiary companies of Borosil.

GMB manufactures glass for the European solar sector, including solar photovoltaic and solar thermal, and greenhouse glass markets, with a capacity of 300 TPD. Interfloat, based in Liechtenstein, has been selling glass to European customers for nearly 40 years and has deep connections with the glass trade in the region.

“The extreme crisis now being faced not only in Europe but across the world from sudden disruption in the supply of natural gas has given great impetus to the urgent requirement for solar installations. The demand for domestically manufactured solar PV modules has increased significantly, leading to a higher demand for solar glass by our European customers. In light of the substantial expansion in our capacity in India, we expect to enhance the reliability of our supply chains for our customers. We believe that by leveraging the existing synergies and several complementary skill sets offered by the two companies, we will be able to serve our customers better. We continue to strongly believe that this acquisition moves us closer to our vision of being the most customer-centric company in the world,” said Pradeep Kheruka, Executive Chairman of Borosil Renewables.

Borosil’s expansion in India will take its manufacturing capacity to 1,000 TPD by the last quarter of 2022. Borosil plans to add further capacity, with the next expansion growing to 2,100 TPD by 2024. The company said it is committed to investing in manufacturing in Europe and will increase capacity at GMB’s Tschernitz plant shortly.

In December 2020, Convergent Finance, a Maharashtra-based investment firm, announced it had invested ₹2 billion ($27.2 million) in Borosil Renewables through a qualified institutional placement of equity shares.

Borosil Renewables had earlier announced that it was undertaking a brownfield capacity expansion, a third solar line with a capacity of 550 tons to meet the growing demand. The commercial operation of the expanded facility is expected to commence in the second quarter of the financial year 2023.