Exide to invest Rs 450 crore in three years

Kolkata, Apr 21 (UNI) Exide Industries Limited plans to invest Rs 450 crore over the next three years targetting a two-fold increase in production, sale and profit, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer S B Ganguly today said.

Talking to reporters, Mr Ganguly said Rs 150 crore of the total amount would be invested in the current fiscal.

"A robust growth is continuing in the auto and auto ancillary industries. So we want to double the production of four wheeler and two wheeler batteries and those for industrial purpose in the coming three years," he said.

At present Exide Industries Limited produces 6 million units of four wheeler batteries, 8 million units of two wheeler batteries while the production of industrial batteries is 1 billion amp hours.

Mr Ganguly, going to step down from the present post on April 30 and work as the chairman Emeritus said the company would emphasise on the rural market telecommunication sector and railways.

"Millions of telecom towers are being erected in the country and the number of air-conditioned coaches are manufactured in the railways. As battery is required in both telecom towers and air-conditioned coaches, the demand of industrial batteries will be increasing in the coming years," he said.

In reply to a question, Mr Ganguly said the company was planning for joint venture projects and talks for that purpose were on with a German and an Australian company.

"The deal is expected to be be finanlised shortly," he said declining to give details.

Mr Ganguly said the company received orders from Reno Mahindra of Logan car and Tata Motors for its Rs one lakh car while it was working for Toyota, Volvo and BMW for new batteries.

UNI