LG to invest Rs 500cr in Pune plant

LG Electronics India (LGEIL), the Indian arm of South Korean chaebol LG Electronics Inc, is planning to invest an additional Rs 500 crore and recruit another 3,000 employees by 2,010 to increase production facilities at its Ranjangaon facility near Pune.

"We are planning to infuse around $250 million (around Rs 1,125 crore) in India in the next five years out of which around Rs 500 crore will be at Ranjangaon," LGEIL managing director Kwang-Ro Kim said today.

The investment is to improve plant and equipment at the facility, which has commenced production of colour TVs (five lakh units per annum), air-conditioners (one lakh), washing machines (two lakh), microwave ovens (two lakh), mobile handsets (10 lakh) and computer monitors (one lakh), he added.

LGEIL has already invested around Rs 150 crore for the greenfield facility last year when it was being launched even though the commercial production of GSM handsets commenced only on March 22, 2005.

This is the company's second unit in India - the first one being located at Greater Noida near Delhi.

The company is also planning to recruit another 3,000 people by 2,010 at the Ranjangaon unit in addition to its existing 5,000 personnel, Kim said.