Apollo Pipes shares hit a Rs 646.40 high Monday after its board cleared a Rs 300 crore investment to enter the tiles & ceramics market.

The board has cleared plans to set up a new subsidiary that will manufacture, trade, market and distribute tiles, ceramics and related products.

This subsidiary can also lean on contract manufacturers instead of building everything from the ground up. Here’s the interesting bit: the company has left the door open to buying existing, profitable manufacturers in this space rather than starting cold.

Managing Director Sameer Gupta and Joint Managing Director Arun Agarwal now have board authorisation to incorporate the subsidiary and decide how and when the Rs 300 crore gets deployed.

Apollo Pipes hasn’t said how much of this will go toward new plants versus acquisitions, or when the tiles business is likely to go live. There’s a second announcement worth knowing about.

The board also cleared a separate preferential issue of up to 31 lakh warrants for identified non-promoter investors.

These are priced at Rs 610 each, which includes a Rs 600 premium, and together could raise up to Rs 189.1 crore if fully subscribed.

Each warrant converts into one equity share of Rs 10 face value. The company hasn’t linked this fundraise directly to the tiles business, so for now, treat these as two separate moves.

On top of that, the board approved raising Apollo Pipes’ authorised share capital from Rs 50 crore to Rs 60 crore, split across six crore equity shares of Rs 10 each.

That gives the company room to issue new shares once the warrants convert. Both the warrant issue and the capital hike still need shareholder sign-off.

Despite all this positive news, the stock didn’t hold its early gains. Apollo Pipes closed Monday’s session at Rs 627.05 on the NSE, down 0.63% from Friday’s close of Rs 631.00.

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