Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd is looking at inorganic growth for expanding its reach.

The company is eyeing a few small and mid-sized companies in the domestic market, as per official sources.

Confirming the move, a senior company official told Business Standard, "We are looking at acquiring a couple of companies in the domestic market by the end of this year. However, we have not initiated talks with any particular company. We will study the market carefully before taking a final decision on the location of the plants."

The company is also looking at acquisitions in the overseas markets. IPCL has already initiated talks with a couple of companies in South Korea.

However, as per the company, there has been no progress on the deals as yet. "We are still to understand the feasibility of the project. A final decision will be taken later," the official said.

Meanwhile, IPCL is likely to invest close to Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion) in bringing about various operational changes and expansion at its Gujarat unit.

The company is looking at an option of increasing its poly vinylchloride capacity, which is estimated at 150,000 tonnes at present.

It has also decided to increase the capacity of ethylene di-chloride for which it is likely to invest about Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion).

The official also said that post acquisition, IPCL has been focusing on maximising its production and utilising its full capacity at all its existing three plants.

"Now that we have been able to increase the production, our next task at hand will be to retain the production level," he said.

At the same time, the company has undertaken a study to understand the availability of feedstock in the country to remove the existing bottlenecks in the plants and upgrade the cracker sizes.

The future investment will be decided only after the study is complete.