Pricol scouts for foreign partner to tap Japanese OEMs

Firm says will transfer technology meant for Japanese cars to a subsidiary

In a move to tap the orders from Japanese auto majors in India, Coimbatore-based auto components manufacturer Pricol Ltd is planning to rope in a foreign partner. The firm said it would transfer technology meant for Japanese cars to a subsidiary.

In an explanatory note to the company's shareholders, Pricol said most of company's business is in the segment of instruments for all types of vehicles. Vehicle instrumentation today moving more towards electronics, is integrated with information flow within the vehicle, and has advanced and attractive display systems.

The market share of Japanese vehicle makers in India is expected to continue to be over 50 per cent. To maintain and increase the company's share of business with Japanese OEMs in India, the company need to partner with a global vehicle instrument-manufacturing company that has close associations with Japanese vehicle makers.

In this connection, the company has decided to transfer Denso Technology instrument businesses undertaking for Japanese cars to a wholly-owned subsidiary, Pricol Components Ltd, and thereafter form a JV with a global instrument supplier.

This would help in adding new products to the JV for supply to Japanese car makers in India, the company said in the note.

The Denso Technology is related to the four wheeler personal passenger vehicles situated at company's Coimbatore and Gurgaon facilities. The net book value for the undertaking to be transferred on a slump basis is estimated to be around Rs 50 crore. The planned effective date for the transaction would be March 2013.

For 2012-13, the company has projected a revenue of around Rs 70 crore from the sale of personal passenger vehicle instrument business to Maruti Suzuki Ltd, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd and Magyar Suzuki Corporation.