Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Apr 15, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Apr 15, 2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
Home Page
-
Corporate Corporate - Overseas Investments Destination China for India Inc
Ambarish Mukherjee
New Delhi , April 14 THE dragon seems to beckon India Inc. From 2001 onwards almost all the major Indian companies have looked towards manufacturing bases, forays or tie-ups on Chinese soil. Be it the age-old Tatas, Birlas or the new generation Narayana Murthys, Azim Premjis. It doesn't end there. Even NRIs are eyeing the chow - the largest steel manufacturer in the world Mr Lakshmi Narayan Mittal is setting up a $100 million steel plant in the mineral rich Liaoning province. Though Indian interests in China are across sectors and involve top billing companies, the hardcore investment figures seem to be still small and even in intent have not, according to industry watchers, as yet crossed the $100-million mark. However, when it comes to a presence in the land of the dragon, India Inc breathes its own fire. Take for instance the Tata group. Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel and Tata Engineering already have their footprints, with Tata Steel planning to expand its value- added steel manufacturing capacity at its three newly acquired plants in southern China. And the statement of the Tata group Chairman, Mr Ratan Tata, last year to mark the first year of operations of TCS in China is proof enough. "The Tata group is scouting for opportunities to invest in China's automobile, hospitality, steel and telecom sectors apart from consolidating in information technology. We consider China to be a very important partner in our plans to internationalise our operations," he had said. TCS has a Global Development Centre in Hangzhou with over 200 professionals while VSNL and Tata International have a presence through joint venture and subsidiary. The Aditya Birla Group too has made a foray. Liaoning Birla Carbon, a pioneering venture in China, is a joint venture between Thai Carbon Black Co Ltd, Thailand, an Aditya Birla Group Company, and Dashiqiao Ronghua Co Ltd. With a capacity of approximately 12,000 tpa and currently in large scale expansion mode, the company manufactures and markets furnace grade carbon black, under brand name Birla Carbon. The Great Wall seems popular with manufacturing companies as well. Mr Subhash Chandra's Essel Propack that manufactures laminated tubes has set up several manufacturing units in Guangzhou and Shanghai, which according to industry estimates, clock an investment of around $40 million. Standard Fireworks too has set up a 160-acre plant in Hunan province to manufacture explosives. Phama major Ranbaxy has a majority holding in a joint venture formulation plant - Ranbaxy (Guangzhou China) Ltd. For the IT industry all roads lead to China. Aptech has a joint venture with Beida JadeBird for IT training in China. The joint venture, Aptech Beida, has a paid-up capital of $5,00,000 where Aptech has invested $2,50,000, which it proposes to increase. The company has 150 training centres in China and claims a market share of 15 per cent. NIIT, on the other hand, has two entities in China - PCEC NIIT Institute of Information Technology Shanghai for training and NIIT China Shanghai Ltd - which is into education as well as software development. So far it has invested under a million dollar in each of these companies. Wipro is the latest to meet the dragon and has a development centre in Shanghai. "We are doing work out of China for our global clients," a Wipro spokesperson said but declined to divulge the investments pumped into the country.
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2005, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|