Ifb Close To Deal With Jap Majors For A-C Venture
The IFB group is planning to set up a joint venture company for manufacturing airconditioners. It will hold a 51 per cent stake in the company, and is currently in the last round of talks with a Japanese partner, believed to be Fujitsu. Japanese trading giant Itochu has also evinced a keen interest and is likely to pick up a stake in the company.
IFB sources declined to comment on whether Fujitsu was the joint venture partner. The air-conditioning venture marks IFB head Bijon Nags entry into the Indian air-conditioning industry, and the companys existing marketing network of home appliances is expected to be used to market the airconditioners.
Sources in the IFB group told Business Standard that the airconditioners would also carry the IFB brand name, together with the brand name of the joint venture partner. The company will manufacture both split and window airconditioners and the plant is expected to be located in Goa.
While Nag was reported to be open to a license agreement initially, where IFB would market the product in India to start with, the final shape to the plan will see a joint venture being set up right from the start, sources added. The venture is expected to start functioning by March 1998.
According to the gameplan, the domestic market apart, the tie-up will cater to the entire South Asian market and the markets touted, apart from India, are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. The Rs 500 crore group is now keen on consolidating its position in the auto components business, which it believes to be its core competency, and also mark new forays into high-growth areas.
Alongside the consolidation in auto components through IFB Industries and IFB Autoliv, the auto safety systems maker, it is also putting in place a growth-oriented gameplan for the other major group company IFB Agro, which is in the Indian Made Foreign Liquor and bottling business.
While a proposal is also being weighed within the IFB group of merging IFB Industries with IFB Agro, there is no clear view as yet on the matter, and IFB would essentially like to first forge new alliances like the air-conditioning venture before deciding on the course of action on the merger front. A restructuring proposal for the groups finance companies is also pending.
Autoliv sled unit inaugural:
Bangalore-based IFB Autoliv, a joint venture between IFB Industries and Autoliv AB of Sweden, will inaugurate its state-of-the-art sled testing facility for car passenger safety today. With this, IFB Autoliv will become the country's only unit to provide a diverse range of latest passenger safety devices.
The test facility will simulate real life crash to evaluate occupant resistant systems like seat belts, airbags and other vehicle components like seat recliners. These will now be available to cater the needs of the auto majors in the country. The equipment is used to simulate dynamic impact (crash) against a concrete barrier to conduct research on injury criterion, real crash pulse etc.
The facility will help check the product performance and ensure that it complies with the international standards.
The cars are mounted on a trolley and crashed against a crash barrier. After the crash the integrity of restraint system (seat belts and airbags) are checked, analysed and evaluated for its performance. The system can further be integrated with high speed video to analyse the motion of the mannequin during the crash, to evaluate probable injury during the crash.
The test facility will also be made available to the car owners for a reasonable fee.
The IFB Autoliv facility comes at a time when auto majors are increasingly veering towards incorporating newer safety features in cars. IFB Autoliv is already high on the original equipment manufacturing (OEM) lists of many car majors like Maruti, Mahindra & Mahindra, Telco, Hyundai, Ford and Daewoo.
Currently, car parts like safety belts, window lifter systems, door locks, brakes, gear shifting system, accelerators and engine cooling systems are being manufactured in Bangalore and Calcutta plants. The company almost has 60 per cent share of the market in the country in these products.