When Braj Binani took control of his family business nearly 20 years ago, it had spent well over a century in the Indian metals industry growing from a small trading house into a well-known zinc producer.
But Mr Binani, not yet 40, had bigger plans founded on the groups new cement unit. With Indias economic growth picking up after the reforms of the 1990s, cement demand surged along with the pace of construction. The rebranded Braj Binani Group sidelined its metals business to expand aggressively in cement, using domestic growth as a springboard into foreign markets from China to east Africa.
Yet after a string of heavy losses culminating in debt default, Binani Cement became a case study of a wave of corporate over-expans…
Read the full article at: https://www.ft.com/content/2fbfca34-3336-11e8-ac48-10c6fdc22f03
