Bosch slashes capital expenditure by 30%

To invest Rs 300 crore in 2009.

Bosch Limited, a supplier of automotive components to OEMs, diesel and gasoline fuel injection systems, industrial and other special purpose machines, is scaling down its investments in the country to Rs 300 crore, a drop of close to 30 per cent compared to the last year.

V K Viswanathan, managing director, Bosch said, “Despite economic slowdown and significant drop in the sales of automobiles in the country, we are not stopping our investment plan. We are going ahead with our investments committed for India by our parent company. The amount will be invested in carrying out expansion of capacities at various plants like Bangalore, Naganathapura, Nashik and Jaipur.”

Addressing the tele press conference, today, he said in 2008 the company had invested Rs 425 crore, up by 45 per cent compared to 2007. In 2005, Bosch had announced an investment of Rs 2,650 crore for India between 2005 and 2010.

Viswanathan said the company has set apart another Rs 640 crore to buy back shares from the public till October this year through an open offer. Till end of February, Bosch has mopped up 220,000 shares at an average price of Rs 3,050 per share and the total outgo was Rs 67 crore, he said.

Currently, Bosch group holds close to 70 per cent stake in Bosch Limited. “We have not set any specific target for buyback and the company’s main purpose is to return money to shareholders,” he said.

He said the company expects to see some sort of turnaround in the economy sometime in the third quarter of the next financial year. “We have come out of the lows of December and there is a slight improvement in February, but it is too early to make any prediction on the revival in demand for automotive products,” he said.

Bosch has no plans to lay off any of its permanent employees due to economic slowdown, he added.