Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited

IPCL was established on 22 March 1969, as a Government of India undertaking, with the objective of promoting the development of the petrochemical industry in India. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, invited Jayant Jyotendra Mehta (who had built the National Rayon plant at Kalyan) to head the IPCL project. Mehta was the founder, Chairman, and Managing Director of IPCL. The Company began construction of its first petrochemicals complex at Vadodara in 1970. Commercial production at the complex commenced in 1973.

By the late 1990s, it held a market share (around 28% in acrylics and polymers) but faced mounting challenges amid economic liberalization. Despite that, the Company’s second petrochemicals complex in Nagothana was commissioned in 1992, and its third complex at Gandhar was commissioned in 1996. In August 1992, the Company’s shares were listed on all the major stock exchanges in India including the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. It became one of the first state-owned companies to issue equity to Indian investors. In 1994, it became the first government-owned company in India to raise capital in the global markets through a US$85 million global depository receipt Euro-issue.