Sahajanand on expansion mode

Gandhinagar based-Sahajanand Laser Technology Ltd (SLTL), plans to expand its facility and to fund its overseas acquisition.

Arvind Patel, Managing Director of SLTL, said, "We are investing Rs 100 crore on expanding our facility and to fund our overseas acquisitions." The company will invest Rs 70 crore on expanding its production facility for laser machinery in India, China and Africa.

The company will invest Rs 10 crore on its medical unit and Rs 20 crore on a solar unit. The company is in the process of acquiring a German company "" Iremed GMBH.

"We will complete acquisition of the German firm in the next three months," adds Patel. Presently, the company markets the stent in India manufactured by Iremed GMBH. Stents are used to deal with blockages of the artery caused by the higher level of cholesterol.

After the acquisition, Iremed GMBH will be a subsidiary of Sahajanand Laser and will fuction as a marketing arm of the company in Europe.

The manufacturing facility of Iremed GMBH will be moved to India to Gandhinagar. For this the company has already acquired a 10,000 sq m of land along with a building and clean room facility at Gandhinagar.

The company will manufacture stent, balloons and other peripheral devices. By December. the facility will commence commercially. The company will acquire the German firm for its stent design as it holds the patent for it. However, the financial details are yet to be worked out for the acquisition.

On Thursday, the company announced its tie-up with the Chennai-based Japanese company Niche In Center for Regenerative Medicine, for technological collaboration to develop non-rejectible stents for cardiac patients.

The company is also entering into solar business through the acquisition route. "We will be acquiring a US-based company that produces Thermo Electric Generator (TEG).

"The company expectS to complete the acquisition by December this year. However, he did not disclose the identity of the company as the entire process was in negotiation stage.

Sahajanand Laser is planning to set up a manufacturing unit in India using the technology that it will acquire through the acquisition of the US company.

The company has developed a heat collection and feeding device technology in-house. This technology developed by Sahajanand Laser will be combined with the device "" TEG for converting the heat into electricity.

In US, TEG uses concept of generating electricity through waste heat. Basically, TEG works by converting the heat energy into electricity. "Sahajanand Laser plans to use this technology to use in India as the country has excess heat from the natural climatic condition in the country," informs Patel.

The company will develop heat converting units in variation of 100 watt for homes, 1 kilowatt for small industries and rural electrification. While 100 kilowatt unit will be to cater the large-sized industries.

The company had clocked a turnover of Rs 50 crore for fiscal 2006-07. The company expects to double its turnover during fiscal 2007-08. The company plans to raise Rs 100 crore through a mixture of initial public issue, venture capitalist and banks.