TE Connectivity to expand manufacturing presence in India

To set up a manufacturing plant in Bangalore Aerospace SEZ

TE Connectivity India Pvt Ltd (formerly, Tyco Electronics Corp India Pvt Ltd), an Indian subsidiary of NYSE-listed $14 billion TE Connectivity Ltd, that designs and manufactures from cables and connectors to relays and fibre optics for automotive, aerospace, defence and telecom among others, is looking to expand its manufacturing presence in India.

The company is planning to increase localisation in India from the present 26 per cent to 60 per cent in the next five years. This would be achieved by setting up more manufacturing facilities organically and also through acquisitions, a top company official said.

TE Connectivity recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Karnataka government at the global investors meet in June this year for an investment in Bangalore. The company plans to set up a new manufacturing unit for cables and connectors among others at the Aerospace SEZ near Bangalore. The company has been allotted 20 acres land from the Karnataka government, V Raja, President & Managing Director, TE Connectivity India said.

“We have set an ambitious target of achieving $1 billion (Rs 5,500 crore) revenues in India in the next five years. This will be achieved through both organic and inorganic routes. We are currently looking for partners to form joint ventures to exploit various business opportunities including tapping defence offset business,” Raja told Business Standard.

He said the company is in active dialogue with several Indian companies for forming JVs to bid for the offset business, which is set to emerge once the government of India signs, the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal.

“We expect to form a JV with Indian companies to tap the offset business within the next six months to one year. We are ready to transfer technology to the Indian JV in the areas of cables and connectors for defence, space and aerospace applications,” Raja said.

Presently, the company is supplying cable assemblies and connectors to a large number of automobile companies through their Tier-I vendors such as Ashok Leyland, Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda, Tata Motors, Volvo and Volkswagen. It also supplies to HAL, BEL and a host of telecom and IT companies and consumer electronics companies.

It has eight manufacturing units in India, of which five are in Bangalore, two in Pune and one in Kochi.

For the year ended September 2011, the company reported revenues of Rs 1,356 crore, showing a growth of 17.6 per cent over the previous year. For the current year, the company is still looking at a double-digit growth despite slowdown in the Indian market, he added.