IFC and World Bank Group to Invest in Lucid Colloids

21 May 2014 --- Lucid Colloids Ltd. is a manufacturer of Guar Gum and its derivatives based in India. Lucid manufacturers a wide range of Guar Gums for application in Foods, Pet foods, Nutracueticals, Pharmaceuticals, Personal Care, Oil & Gas, Paper, Paints, Mining, Explosives and a host of other industrial applications at its manufacturing plant at Jodhpur.

Lucid’s Joint Venture with Taiyo Kagaku of Japan – Taiyo Lucid Pvt. Ltd. manufactures a Guar based water soluble Dietary Fiber (Partially Hydrolysed Guar Gum “PHGG”) in India at its plant at Aurangabad. Lucid’s Corporate Office is based in Mumbai with sales offices in New Delhi and Bangalore and three overseas subsidiaries that handle marketing, sales, distribution and logistics in their geographies – Lucid Colloids America Inc. (USA), Lucid Colloids Europe Ltd. (UK) and Lucid Colloids Middle East FZE (UAE).

Lucid currently employs 350 people and has annual sales of US$ 150 million. Lucid has been in the Guar business since 1958 and its Senior Management Team has over 300 man-­-years of experience in the manufacturing and RND of Guar Gums and Guar Derivatives. Lucid is building two new Guar Splitting plants (backward integration to exercise better control on the supply chain) and a greenfield plant to manufacture Food Grade Guar Gums in the State of Gujarat, India to double its food grade Guar production. Lucid is also developing a 40 acre Agri Farm and Research Station in the State of Rajasthan to conduct field research on Guar. International Finance Corporation IFC, World Bank Group, is investing up to US$ 30 million in Lucid Colloids Limited.

The investment is a combination of Equity and Long Term Debt. The funds will be utilized to part finance Lucid’s Capacity Expansion Plans, budgeted at US$ 46 million. Lucid is targeting to double its production capacity for Guar and Guar derivatives, backward integrate in to Guar Splits manufacturing and strengthen its Innovation infrastructure in the next 18 months. Lucid will be adopting and implementing several World Bank guidelines on Environmental, Social, Safety, Health and Corporate Governance.