Korean major Samsung Electronics has lined up investments worth $45 million to expand its colour TV as well as colour monitor facility in India by 2005.
Samsung Electronics senior vice-president (display business) Kang Soo Lee said the company would invest $25 million to enhance the production capacity of the colour monitor facility, which was being set up at Noida, from one million units to four million. The balance $20 million will be injected to raise the capacity of the colour TV plant to four million units from one million units.
The entire investment would be met by borrowings and internal accruals of the Korean giant which operates in India through two subsidiaries -- Samsung India Electronics (SIE) and Samsung Electronics India Information and Telecommunication.
Kim ruled out the possibility of SIE mopping up money through an initial public offer (IPO).
"Worldwide, no Samsung subsidiary is listed on the bourses. If we decide to get listed, we will certainly go for an IPO in India," he said.
With a turnover of $27 billion, Samsung Electronics is a world leader in electronics. It has operations in 50 countries and employs 54,000 people.
Kim said the colour monitor factory at Noida would commence commercial production from July. SIE has set a sales target of Rs 2,850 crore this year (January to December 2001) against the previous year's figure of Rs 1,950 crore. Last year, the company recorded a net profit of Rs 32 crore.
In the current year the company aims at selling six lakh colour TV sets and 10 lakh colour monitors. According to Kim, the Indian operations are "very important" to the parent corporation because Samsung wants to use India as a hub of its activities in the South Asian Association of Regional Countries. "In addition, the Indian market itself is also big," he added.
According to Kim, cheap imports of Chinese goods would not hinder Samsung's growth in India although the country was price-sensitive. "We believe in high price premium products. This policy will certainly click in India," he added.
