Novonesis to put Rs 6,600 crore into Patalganga enzyme plant

Danish biosolutions company Novonesis on Wednesday said it will invest more than Rs 6,600 crore, about 600 million euros, to expand its enzyme plant at Patalganga in Maharashtra. The enlarged unit is due to run at full capacity in 2030 and will make enzymes for biofuels, household care and food and beverages.

Chief executive Ester Baiget said the plant will sit closer to customers in the Middle East, Africa, India and the rest of South Asia, markets she expects to grow faster than developed ones. Chief operating officer Anders Lund said the site will add scale, resilience and supply flexibility to a global network that already includes Rayong in Thailand, Franklinton in North Carolina, Taicang in China, Araucaria in Brazil and West Allis in Wisconsin.

The Patalganga factory opened in 2019 under Novozymes. Novozymes merged with Chr. Hansen in 2024 to form Novonesis. Patalganga, on the edge of the Mumbai industrial belt, already hosts chemical and drug plants, including early Reliance units and sites of Hindustan Organic Chemicals, Cipla and Asian Paints.

Krishna Mohan Puvvada, regional president for Middle East, India and Africa, tied the cheque to India's BioE3 policy and to the government's language on a self-reliant, lower-carbon bioeconomy. The company said the new kit will recycle freshwater and use heat pumps to cut energy drawn from the grid.

Enzymes are industrial proteins that speed specific reactions: breaking starch for ethanol, lifting stains in detergent, improving dough or juice yield. India is both a market and a production base for those lines. A 600-million-euro bet on one site is large by the standards of the Indian specialty-chemicals belt and locks Novonesis into Maharashtra through the end of the decade.

The investment is described as part of capital spending already flagged to investors, not a surprise extra. That matters for how equity desks read it. The useful local fact is the address and the date: Patalganga, full run in 2030, enzymes for fuel, soap and food, with water recycling written into the design note.

Whether the plant meets its water and energy claims will show up in Maharashtra pollution-control filings long before 2030. Whether it meets Baiget's emerging-market thesis will show up in Novonesis regional sales. For the state the immediate gain is a named foreign manufacturer adding capacity on an existing plot rather than a greenfield promise without a factory.