00:00 Hello and welcome to BQ Prime. I am your host, Vikas Shrivastava. Today we have two gentlemen
00:05 with us, Mr. Ryan Kerr. He is the CEO and President of Minova and Director MRPL, which
00:13 is Minova Runia Private Limited. It is a joint venture between Minova and Runia and they
00:19 are basically providers of ground support system for mining and infrastructure business.
00:24 We also have Mr. Naivedya Agarwal with us. He is the CEO of Runia and Chairman of MRPL.
00:31 Welcome to BQ Prime, Mr. Naivedya and Mr. Ryan Kerr. Basically, I just wanted to introduce
00:38 my viewers to your company MRPL. So if you all can give your brief introduction about
00:45 what Runia MRPL is basically doing into this field.
00:49 MRPL, as you mentioned, is a joint venture between Minova and Runia. Minova comes in
01:00 with a 140-year history of providing ground support solutions to the mining and infrastructure
01:05 industries. So as you know, at Runia, when you are looking for a partner to help us come
01:13 in and explore this industry, Minova was a natural fit because we had similar shared
01:17 values whether it is around safety, ESG, governance and all aspects. So in that regard, it was
01:24 a perfect match between the two of us.
01:28 From a Minova perspective, I think we are extremely excited about the opportunity to
01:31 partner with Runia and create the MRPL business. Minova is a Tier 1 ground support provider
01:38 globally. We have got now a great opportunity to leverage the Indian market as well as export
01:45 products out of India to some of our other jurisdictions where we operate. So we are
01:48 pretty excited about the opportunity.
01:50 So which are the products that you are bringing to the Indian market and what is the kind
01:55 of scope that you see and which are the sectors where you see your products going into?
02:00 Let me start with the sector. So we supply ground support products into the hard rock
02:05 and soft rock mining markets, underground mining where our product applications apply.
02:10 We also service the infrastructure market. So where man-made infrastructure actually
02:16 interfaces with the ground, that's where we supply the products. We started in MRPL with
02:22 some of our steel products, two specifically, our secure bolt as well as our friction bolt
02:28 and some plates, as well as a resin plant. That's the starting point. From there, we
02:33 will expand the product portfolio to further steel products. We have just commissioned
02:38 a mesh. We are in the process of commissioning a mesh plant as well as an SDA line. And from
02:44 there, we will expand the product portfolio to service different sections of those two
02:48 segments we service, i.e. mining and infrastructure.
02:51 Okay. Mr. Navid, yeah.
02:53 The India opportunity and the India story in these two sectors, the ground support,
03:01 sort of industry segment within the mining space, we believe that this is about a 2000
03:08 crore potential of business, out of which 1200 crores is for the infrastructure side
03:16 as the current Modi government is focusing a lot on development of tunnels, highways,
03:22 railway projects, metro projects, etc. And about 800 crores on the mining side. And this
03:29 is across hard rock and soft rock with about 30 to 40% of the market around coal in the
03:34 soft rock segment, and the balance in the hard rock segment around zinc, copper, uranium,
03:39 manganese, etc.
03:40 Like within this segment that you said around 2000 crore of potential that you'll have
03:46 seen, what is the kind of business opportunity you see for MRPL?
03:50 So today, we will close this year at a revenue of about 250 crores. But, you know, both of
03:58 us partners believe that this is just a starting point for us. And we feel that the potential
04:03 of this business is to grow 4x. So we are looking at, you know, investing around 250
04:10 to 300 crores over the next three to five years to hit a revenue target of about 1000
04:15 crores within these two segments.
04:18 And Mr. Ryan, if you can tell what kind of potential you see, given the kind of products
04:23 that you have in your global markets, so you would like to bring them also to India and
04:29 what are those products and where can they be used?
04:31 Yeah, so I mean, as Naveed said, we're really excited about the Indian market. I mean, it's
04:36 got scope for us to grow into the infrastructure space. As I said earlier, we're commissioning
04:40 an SDA line to actually supply there. From there, we potentially expand into some of
04:44 our injection chemicals portfolio, as well as some of our cementitious grouts and other
04:49 specialist Steel products that we're playing with. So from us, that provides an exceptional
04:54 opportunity for our business to be able to grow. MRPL, obviously outside of India also,
05:00 we can operate and supply some export product to some of our other markets in the world.
05:04 So for us, that's truly exciting.
05:06 So during your presentation, you were telling that you are planning to make India as an
05:12 export hub also. So what kind of percentage you would like to export from India?
05:17 We would like to build the Indian business to at least export at least 30% of our revenue
05:23 comes from the MRPL site and 70% of it, the revenue is domestic.
05:30 So what is the timeline that you are looking at?
05:32 We typically plan around a three to five year time horizon. So for us, we've seen two times
05:37 growth since we've started the business over two years. So we're moving pretty quickly.
05:42 So we believe in that three to five year time frame, we'll be able to grow this business
05:47 to where we are from an ambition perspective.
05:49 Okay, one more question before I come to you, Navidya. I just wanted to ask, you were telling
05:54 that you have done some research work with Hindustan Zinc and some other research firm
05:59 which said that your products are almost 70% superior to your competitors in the market.
06:05 So can you tell a little bit about that?
06:07 Yeah, I mean, our teams have done some external market research. Obviously, we are a tier
06:13 one ground support provider as such that there's quality that comes with that piece. The assessment
06:19 we've done is we're 70% better than some of our competition in the Indian market in terms
06:23 of quality. And we're able to supply that quality at a sort of a similar price to what
06:28 we're, similar market price to some of the competition, which for us is important because
06:33 we keep people safe. And we are super competitive as part of that process.
06:39 Who are your competitors in the market right now?
06:42 It's more like local providers within the Indian market. So that's predominantly who
06:46 the main competition is, as part of this process.
06:49 Navidya, can you tell me what are the challenges that your company is facing right now? And
06:54 what kind of hurdles you see going ahead in your business?
06:58 Going ahead, I think the future is bright. Today, I think, you know, we're taking, we've
07:03 decided to take a step by step approach to entering the market. So we started with a
07:08 limited product portfolio, because we didn't want to overexert ourselves and sort of grow
07:14 too quickly. And as we expand our product portfolio and bring in more and more products
07:20 with the Minova portfolio into India, I think that's when we really, you know, increase
07:24 our ability to scale and grow faster. So for example, you know, even when we started, we
07:29 started off with a single steel product, scale that, then started our second steel product,
07:33 and then only then bought in residence. So we're taking a very systematic approach to
07:37 grow the market so that, you know, long term, you know, because we're building this business
07:42 for the long term, you know, we're not thinking short term, we're looking to really see how
07:45 we can really grow this business over a 5, 10, 15 year horizon.
07:50 To begin with, like right now you are catering to your businesses in mining and tunneling
07:58 especially. So what are the other infrastructure projects where you see potential coming in?
08:03 So apart from tunneling, I think Ryan can cover this a bit better. But we're also looking
08:07 at, you know, some of the hydropower market as well, right?
08:11 Yeah, so it's hydropower and how do we, some of the infrastructure, how do we make that
08:15 infrastructure where man-made structure interfaces with the ground site. So that could be, you
08:20 know, that could be sort of a wind turbine and other applications. So our infrastructure
08:27 portfolio covers a whole range of that, including applications to keep sort of roads stable
08:33 and a whole bunch of other applications.
08:36 Of your total sales that you have globally, what percentage you plan to basically have
08:41 from India in say next two to three years?
08:43 Yeah, we'd like Indian business to get to 15 to 20% of our overall revenue portfolio.
08:49 I think that would be, that'll be the target considering sort of the size of the market
08:54 we have in India and opportunity potentially for export. So that's sort of where I think
08:58 we can get to.
08:59 And also in terms of geology and, you know, the scope of work that you have, what are
09:03 the basic differences that you have seen in say developed economies like in Europe, US,
09:08 Australia and in India? And what are the ways that you're planning to overcome them?
09:13 Yeah, I think it comes to the level of sort of research and development being done in
09:17 the ground support space. What new bolts can we apply? How do those bolts interface with
09:23 chemicals? How can we use some of the chemical products to maybe make ground stable quickly
09:28 and safely as part of that process? So that's being tested in other parts of the world.
09:32 And as we actually gain traction there, we will look at, okay, how does that apply to
09:37 India and how do we take those principles and be able to put it into this market to
09:41 actually take the next step ahead of the competition as part of that process?
09:45 Yeah, one question before I end this. This Himalayan geology basically is a lot under
09:52 discussion because of earthquakes and other issues, you know, especially when we think
09:56 of large hydro projects over there. So are you all in discussion with say Indian ministries
10:01 or some officials on this aspect where you all are working on researching the geology?
10:07 Yeah, our sales team is pretty excited. We think it's a market we can play and we're
10:11 starting to build relationships in that market to establish our brand and penetrate that.
10:16 What we're also doing is using some of our global expertise that's based out of Europe
10:21 to help sort of position our product applications for that ground. We do supply a lot of product
10:28 into European infrastructure. We think it could be applied here. But as I said, we started
10:34 in mining, we're breaking into infrastructure and the team's doing a really good job as
10:38 to winning those orders using the technical capability we've got to ultimately provide
10:43 those solutions.
10:45 Navidya, what kind of outlook you foresee for your company say next four to five years
10:52 and which sector segments and that would mostly be coming?
10:55 So I mean, as an outlook, as I mentioned earlier, we're looking to scale our revenues about
10:59 4x over the next three to five years. And this will be across a mix of products. So
11:05 it would include utilizing our steel and resin plant that we have currently to full capacity.
11:12 We're in the process of putting up two projects of our SDA line and wire mesh, which would
11:17 both be commissioned within the next six to seven months. And then once we have those
11:21 in place, we will start evaluating the injection chemical business, the cementitious grouts.
11:28 And as a process, what we do is we start by trading, establish a product, gain credibility
11:35 in the market. And then once we see that our products are qualified, the product market
11:39 fit is there, we then make the investment, the decision to invest and actually go ahead
11:45 with manufacturing in India.
11:47 And just to add to it, since you said that you plan to export from India, mostly, so
11:53 what are the other locations that you're identifying for your say, increasing the manufacturing
11:58 capacity?
11:59 I think the export opportunity for us, certainly out of India, Africa and Australia are key
12:06 markets for us from that perspective. At this point, Bilwara is our hub. We tend to continue
12:14 the expansion there and then we'll look for other opportunities within the Indian sort
12:18 of country to figure out where do we want to maybe make the next investment.
12:23 Thank you very much, gentlemen, for sparing time to talk to VQ Prime. It was our pleasure.
12:27 It was a pleasure. Thank you.
12:29 Thank you.
12:38 Thank you.
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