Indo Asian Fusegear in JV with Spain's Simon

Electrical equipment maker Indo Asian Fusegear today entered into a joint venture (JV) pact with Spain's Simon to set up a manufacturing plant for home automation systems at an investment of Rs 30 crore.

The new JV company - Indo Asian Simon - would establish its manufacturing facility at Haridwar, Uttaranchal and is expected to start operations early next year, V P Mahendru, CMD of Indo Asian, said today.

Indo Asian would hold 51% stake in the joint venture and the balance would be with Simon...The company expects to post revenue of Rs 150 crore in FY08, Mahendru said.

This is an important strategic addition to the euro 300 million Spanish firm's JVs outside Europe, Xavier Torra, MD of Simon, said.

The new entity would manufacture wiring accessories, home automation products and switching systems for household, commercial and industrial use...these products are currently not available in the country.

This is Indo Asian's second joint venture within a year. The company had formed a joint venture with Italy's Nordex for establishing a plant to make lighting products.

With the addition of all these units, the company would have a total of 11 manufacturing units in the country. It already has manufacturing facilities in Noida, Parwanoo (Himachal Pradesh), Jalandhar and Sonepat.

Indo Asian also plans to invest about Rs 70 crore in the next two years for expansion of its manufacturing facilities in Uttaranchal as it eyes doubling revenues to about Rs 325 crore this fiscal from Rs 156 crore in FY06.