Spice maker MDH Ltd has negated reports of a possible sale of its business to HUL. There were reports that MDH promoters were in talks to sell their business to HUL. But MDH has termed such reports as “completely false, fabricated and baseless” and Rajeev Gulati, the MDH Chairman, said that “MDH Pvt Ltd is a legacy that Mahashay Chimi Lal Ji and Mahashay Dharampal Ji nurtured all their lives, and we are committed to taking that legacy forward with all our heart.
According to a report, HUL is in talks with the Delhi-based Mahashian Di Hatti Pvt. Ltd (MDH) to purchase a majority stake.
It had also been claimed that the deal’s value could range between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 crores. However, MDH declined any such considerations.
Recently, several leading FMCG players, such as ITC and Tata Consumers Pvt Ltd, have increased their play in the spices segment, which is considered to be a high margin business.
In 2020, ITC acquired Sunrise Foods, a prominent player in the spice market in Eastern India, in a Rs. 2,150 crore deal. Dharampal Gulati, who had brought the family company from Sialkot, Pakistan to India after a division, and turned it into a business empire worth over a thousand crores, passed away in December 2020. After that, the business was passed to the next generation. MDH has a range of over 60 products. Its spices are also exported to several countries.