Munoth Group, a company with interests in telecom and financial services, has announced that it has tied up with Chinese mobile handset manufacturer G’Five Group to operate in three areas — manufacturing and marketing of handsets and smart communication device, along with service and technology offerings. The 50:50 joint venture firm, Munoth G’Five Telecom Ltd (MGTL), would work exclusively on touchscreen mobile phones in the mid and premium segments and expects a turnover of Rs 200 crore from the first year of Indian operations, according to senior executive from the company.
The company, which would focus on launching mobile handsets and other communication devices, is planning to launch around 10 products including mobile handsets and a tablet PC before the end of October, 2011. The paid up capital of the company is expected to be Rs 50 crore in the first year of operations and the projected market spending is around Rs 18-20 crore for the first 12 months, said Jaswant Munoth, managing director, Munoth Communication Ltd.
The company also today announced its new mobile brand, CFORE, which would address the mid and premium segment customers with touch screen products ranging from Rs 2000 to Rs 16,000 a product.
G’Five would offer supply chain and manufacturing strengths while Munoth would offer its sale and distribution experience to the JV.
“We would be present in three core areas — the mobile devices, Value Added Service (VAS) and Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). The mobile and tablet will be launched this month itself. We will then launch the VAS services on the common platform, not just on our platform, by next year and the MVNO once the government starts giving approvals for it,” said Vikas Munoth, managing director, MGTL. The company is also awaiting approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for the joint venture investment programmes.
For the time being the company would manufacture the products in the G’Fives facility in China. In the initial stage it will launch the handsets in eight states in South and Western India and Delhi and cover 200 towns in first three months of operations. It will then launch the products in eight more states, along with launches in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, where G’Five has a market presence. It would launch the products in Australia, New Zealand and North America in collaboration with operators, said Vijay Menon, CEO, MGTL.
It has tied up with a service providers to offer service for the handsets through the latter’s 550 service centers across the country. It is expecting to have a network of 400 distributors.
The company would complete launch of its products in around 40 countries in a short timespan, said Jaswant Munoth. He added that Munoth Group has so far launched around four to five mobile products including a handset for senior citizens. G’Five Group currently offers mobile handset products for mass market.
The company is planning to foray into laptop and tablet market, he added.
