Lg Elect 9-Mth Turnover At Rs 130 Cr

LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd (LGEIL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the US$73 billion LG Group, has posted a turnover of Rs 130 crore for the nine-month period ending December 31, 1997, said LGEIL managing director, Kwang-Ro Kim at a press conference here yesterday.

Our white goods performance has far outstripped our target, Kim said. We have long term investment plans in the country and after few years will offload 25 per cent of our holdings in LGEIL.

The company, having sustained marginal losses in 1997, hopes to break even in 1998 and start reaping profits from next or third year of operations. While 70 per cent of the revenues came from the colour television segment, refrigerators and washing machines accounted for 15 per cent and 10 per cent of the earnings respectively. Kim was in the city to mark the companys all-India launch of patented high-end Multiwave microwave oven systems. The ovens will be available in three models of 28 litres and 34 litres. Kim said the ovens, a cooking concept catching up in Indian homes, will account for at least 5 per cent of the companys projected Rs 400-cr revenues during the current calendar. Production of washing machines will start from August, 1998.

 

The LG Group plans to invest around $600 million over the next few years of which consumer electronics alone will account for $289 million. The LG brand, which is in five categories of technology products, has captured a 37 per cent market share in high-end frost free 300 litres plus category refrigerators, 35 per cent market in fully automatic washing machines and a 8.5 per cent share of the CTV market. LGEIL has 18 branch offices and a dealer network of 1700.

The Noida unit will start production of its recently launched airconditioners from April, this year. LGEIL will also start production of VCDs (Karaoke) soon. Other products on the pipeline are computer monitors, plasma TV, Internet TV, semi-automatic washing mach-ines, digital cameras etc. LG Group operates in the country through five wholly-owned subsidiaries viz, LGEIL, LG Software India(LGIS), LG Chemical India, LG Construction India and LG International. LG also has a joint venture with Hotline for manufacturing LG picture tubes in Gwalior. LG International, the trading and liaison arm of the group, is currently holding negotiations for acquiring a five per cent stake in a steel firm from which it plans to source its global orders. Plans are afoot to launch LG brand of cosmetics by the end of the current year.

By the turn of the century the picture tube manufacturing capacity at Gwalior will be enhanced from the current 250,000 to 2 million units per annum. The current market size of picture tubes in India is around 2 million.