Sical Logistics is fundamentally a heavy-lifting partner to India’s coal industry that is being rebuilt into a multi-modal logistics platform for the south of the country. After a near-collapse following the death of its former promoter in 2019, the company was acquired out of insolvency in January 2023 by the Pristine Group - a large northern-Indian logistics operator that wanted a southern footprint - and is now being recapitalised and refocused around its oldest strength while new terminal and warehousing businesses are scaled up. The recurring approach is to own the hard infrastructure - the excavators, the container yards, the rail sidings - and then wrap services around it so that customers get a single point of responsibility from mine gate to port or warehouse to doorstep. # Business segments Three engines at different stages - a seven-decade mining-logistics workhorse that generates the bulk of activity, a terminal network that is adding rail-linked parks to its established container stations, and an asset-light warehousing and distribution arm that is growing fast on leased space. ## 1. Mining logistics: the overburden-removal backbone **Sical digs, loads and hauls away the rock and soil that sits on top of coal seams - a specialised, contract-heavy service for public-sector miners that requires a large equipment fleet but very little fresh capital spending each year.** - **Paid to move waste, not to mine coal** - the company’s core job is overburden removal: excavating the layers of earth above a coal deposit so that the mining customer can reach the seam, a service it has provided for more than 70 years. - **A fleet that can shift 150 million cubic metres a year** - the operational fleet includes excavators, dumpers, dozers and graders, giving it an annual overburden-removal capability of 150 million-plus cubic metres. - **Order book built on multi-year PSU contracts** - as of April 2026 the order book stood at Rs. 46,000 million, anchored by long-term agreements with Coal India subsidiaries such as Northern Coalfields and Mahanadi Coalfields; a single contract at the Nigahi mine, awarded in 2023, covers 472.5 million tonnes over five years. - **Customer concentration is falling fast** - revenue from the top customer dropped from 76% in FY24 to 33% in FY25, and the top-five share fell from 91% to 59% over the same period, so the business is becoming less dependent on any single miner. - **Cost risk is mitigated** - contracts include escalation clauses that cover diesel, power and lubricant costs, which are the main operating inputs, while preventive maintenance and route optimisation keep the fleet running efficiently. ## 2. Terminals: container stations and rail-linked logistics parks **Sical runs container freight stations at three southern ports and has just opened the first private multi-modal logistics park in Chennai - a rail-connected hub that shifts cargo between road, rail and ship under one gate.** - **Three CFSs that act as port overflow yards** - the container freight stations at Chennai, Tuticorin and Visakhapatnam handle container storage, customs clearance and cargo consolidation away from the congested port terminals, with a combined yard capacity of more than 450,000 TEU. - **Chennai is the flagship, with a market share above 10%** - the Chennai CFS moved 148,192 TEUs in FY26 across 55 acres and was recognised as the top-performing CFS in the southern region for four straight years. - **The Chennai MMLP brings rail to the warehouse gate** - spread over 82 acres and commercially operational from December 2025, it is the first private rail-linked logistics park in Chennai, handling 50-70 container rakes and 90-100 non-container rakes a month, with automobiles making up 41% of rake traffic. - **A second park is being built in Bangalore** - a 65-plus-acre rail-linked terminal at Kacharakanahalli will target 100-140 container rakes a month and is designed to capture freight that currently moves by road because southern India has very few rail-linked terminals. ## 3. Warehousing and third-party logistics: the asset-light distribution arm **Sical stores, picks, packs and dispatches goods for brands across pharmaceuticals, electronics and consumer durables, using leased warehouse space so that capital stays light and the network can expand quickly.** - **Over a million square feet under management** - the company operates 20 warehouses with a cumulative area of more than 1.2 million square feet, including temperature-controlled facilities, and moves 20,000-plus SKUs and 1,400-plus outbound vehicles every month. - **Leased space, not owned sheds** - in Warehousing & 3PL, the model is deliberately asset-light, built on leasing and partnerships, which limits capital expenditure and lets the business scale up or down as client needs change. - **Moving up the value chain in pharma** - it has recently entered the national super-stockist model within the pharmaceutical sector, taking on purchase-order management, inventory handling and distribution for healthcare companies, a higher-value service than basic storage. - **Run through a dedicated subsidiary** - the warehousing and distribution operations sit inside Pristine Value Logistics Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary that as of FY25 had 19 warehouses across four states and was on an upward trajectory driven by network expansion. # Group structure and partners **Sical is a Pristine Group company, backed by one of India’s largest private container-rail operators and ultimately majority-owned by BlackRock.** - The ultimate holding company is Pristine Logistics and Infraprojects Limited, in which BlackRock holds a 57.5% stake; Pristine Malwa Logistics Park Private Limited acquired Sical through the insolvency process and is now being merged into the holding company, with no change in control of Sical. - The Pristine Group operates 55 container rakes, 16 inland container depots and private freight terminals, and more than 2.2 million square feet of warehousing, giving Sical access to a pan-Indian network that stretches from Kanpur and Ludhiana to Siliguri and Nepal. - Sical’s main operating subsidiaries are Sical Multimodal and Rail Transport Limited, which runs the container freight stations and the Chennai rail terminal, and Pristine Value Logistics Private Limited, which runs the warehousing and distribution business; both are material subsidiaries. - As part of the resolution plan, several legacy entities - including the iron-ore terminal at Kamarajar Port and the PSA joint venture at Tuticorin - were transferred out, so the company today is a cleaner structure focused on mining logistics, terminals and warehousing.