Nile Limited is a recycler at its core - it takes spent batteries and scrap, extracts the metal inside, and sells it back to battery makers, closing the loop on lead and, increasingly, lithium. Founded in 1984 to supply pure lead to the battery industry, the company has spent four decades refining the art of large-scale metal recovery, later adding wind power and now building a new business around the electric-vehicle revolution. The recurring approach is simple: build recycling capacity ahead of regulation, lock in feedstock through relationships and policy tailwinds, and let the chemistry do the rest. # Business segments Two engines at different stages - a lead-recycling cash cow that still carries the company, and a lithium-ion recycling bet under construction - with a legacy wind business that has now been suspended. ## 1. Lead recycling: where the group’s cash comes from **The company melts down used lead-acid batteries and scrap, refines the metal, and sells it straight back to battery manufacturers - a closed loop built on two large plants and a pricing formula that passes commodity risk to the customer.** - **Two plants, 107,000 tonnes of capacity** - the Tirupathi plant can process 75,000 tonnes of lead scrap a year and the Choutuppal plant another 32,000 tonnes, giving Nile the scale to serve India’s biggest battery makers. - **Prices float with the London Metal Exchange** - both the scrap Nile buys and the pure lead it sells are priced off LME rates, so a swing in global lead prices does not hit profits the way it would a fixed-price business. - **One giant customer is building its own smelter** - Amara Raja, historically the dominant buyer of Nile’s lead, has started its own recycling operation and will phase down its purchases, which is why Nile is now chasing new domestic battery makers and export orders to fill the gap. - **Regulation is steering scrap toward the factory gate** - India’s Battery Waste Management Rules and the new Extended Producer Responsibility credits are designed to push end-of-life batteries into the hands of formal, large-scale recyclers like Nile, and the certificates themselves can be sold for cash. ## 2. Lithium-ion battery recycling: the electric-vehicle bet, built from scratch **Through a wholly owned subsidiary, Nile shreds spent lithium-ion batteries into a black powder rich in cobalt, nickel and lithium - and is now testing the chemical process that would let it pull out those individual metals for sale.** - **Phase 1 is already running** - a mechanical processing plant in Maheshwaram, Telangana, started up in March 2024 and now handles roughly 40 to 50 tonnes of scrap batteries a month in a single shift, mostly from old portable electronics. - **It sells black mass today, but wants to sell metals tomorrow** - the mixed metal oxide coming out of Phase 1 is being supplied to established local companies, while a pilot hydrometallurgy plant - the chemical step that separates individual metals - is now operational and points toward higher-value output. - **Feedstock is a relationship game** - Nile Li-Cycle sources battery scrap from equipment makers, vendors and traders, and is getting its facility audited by potential customers to lock in long-term supply commitments, with detailed discussions underway with firms like Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies. - **The parent wrote the cheques to get it here** - Nile Limited built its stake in the subsidiary to nearly 97% through repeated equity injections totalling Rs. 1,502 lakhs, and also extended a Rs. 40 crore corporate guarantee so the unit could borrow from Axis Bank. # Group structure and partners **Nile Limited runs its lead and lithium businesses through separate entities, has parked a shelved herbal-extracts project in a dormant subsidiary, and is stretching its geographic reach with new vehicles in Singapore, Jordan and the UAE.** - **The lithium engine sits in Nile Li-Cycle Private Limited** - a wholly owned subsidiary that holds the Maheshwaram plant and all the battery-recycling intellectual property. - **A shelved project still sits on the books** - Nirmalya Extracts Private Limited was meant to run a phytochemical operation on company-owned land in Andhra Pradesh, but the plan was put on hold because of competition and raw-material shortages, freeing up resources for lithium recycling. - **Overseas shells are in place** - the group holds a wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore and a company in Jordan, and in early 2025 incorporated Nile Overseas Enterprise FZE, which plans to set up a 51%-owned operating subsidiary in the UAE.