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MOTORINDIA
l
August 2012
A. All credit
should be given to the
Ministry of Oil and Natural Gas for
the changes made to the Act. Now
the task ahead is to educate the
transport community on the very
real benefits of semi-trailers such as
ours.
The revision of the Act last De-
cember was a significant step in
terms of bringing India ‘up to
speed’ in fuel transport and distri-
bution. However, it remains to be
seen how the country’s oil compa-
nies and their haulers will embrace
the changes to the Act that allow for
high-capacity semi-trailers. The cost
will of course be higher, but the re-
turns are far greater than remaining
with inefficient, low-capacity mild
steel rigid tankers.
Q. Indian Oil Corporation and
Oil Tanking GmbH had set up a
consortium in 1997 for liquid bulk
storage. Do you have any similar
plans for the Indian market?
A. The scenarios are very differ-
ent as we would be selling primarily
to privately-owned contractors to
the major oil companies, and not the
oil companies direct. Therefore, it
would be very unlikely that a party
such as IOC would be interested in
setting up a joint venture for tank
and trailer manufacturing. A more
likely scenario would be partnering
with a company already engaged in
manufacturing transport equipment
that has a ‘feel’ for our industry.
Q. Could you give us an update
on the recent management-level
changes at Heil Trailer? How
would it help the company move
forward?
A. American Industrial Partners’
(AIP) recent purchase of our com-
pany is in keeping with its posi-
tion as an operationally oriented
middle-market private equity firm
that makes control investments in
North American-based industrial
businesses serving domestic and
global markets. AIP has deep roots
in the industrial economy and has
been active in private equity invest-
ment since 1989. To date, the firm
has completed over 30 transactions
and is currently managing more than
$1.1 billion in equity capital.
“AIP is very excited about the
purchase of Heil Trailer”, said Mr.
Danny Davis of American Indus-
trial Partners. “The company’s (Heil
Trailer) brand is one of the most re-
spected in the industry, and it is well
positioned for growth both in North
America and globally. We believe
that AIP will be a value-added part-
ner for the company (Heil Trailer)
going forward.”
Q. Would Heil Trailer contem-
plate tie-up with an Indian com-
pany in the near future?
A. It is of course essential to have
a local partner to advance our ‘foot-
print’ in India. We have been talk-
ing to a number of companies over
the past decade, and we would hope
to be able to take some decisions in
this regard soon.
For the time being, we may look at
partnerships for assembly purposes
only, until such time as market ac-
ceptance and penetration warrant
actual start-up of a dedicated fac-
tory. We strongly believe that this
will happen sooner than later.
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