The Hindu Business Line : Kinetic Motor to raise $15 m thru FCCB

Kinetic Motor Company is in talks with a few investors to raise over $15 million through the FCCB (foreign convertible currency bond) route to fund its plans for production of Italjet range of scooters and for model development of other scooters.

The Kinetic's Joint Managing Director, Ms Sulajja Firodia Motwani, told Business Line that the company will finalise the investors within six to eight weeks. "The amount raised through the FCCB route will go towards model development and also for production of Italjet range of scooters," Ms Motwani said.

She said the alpha marketing of a few Italjet scooters was already underway. She said the 165 cc motoscooter, Millenium, from Italjet will be launched later this month while the second scooter, Jet Set, the 135 cc from the same stable, will be launched in June.

"We will roll out at least two to three models of the Italjet range every year," she said.

Kinetic has acquired manufacturing and distribution rights for seven Italjet range of scooters consisting of 75 cc to 250 cc engine capacities.

These rights include sale in India as well as global exports.

New designs

Additionally, under the agreement, Mr Leopoldo Tartarini, the founder of Italjet, will also design scooters specially for Kinetic.

The Jet Set has a car-like dual front headlights, while the Millennium is a large `maxiscooter' with bold styling and a big visor and two step seating.

Ms Motwani said the company expects to sell over 1 lakh scooters this year including 20,000 Italjet scooters.

Kinetic has a 20 per cent market share in scooters while the rest is with Honda.

She said the company's motorcycles including Boss and Stryker were posting sales of around 2,500 every month.

"We will continue to focus on them and plan to bring out limited edition range soon," she said. Among the scooters, the Nova range and Kinetic 4S were posting good sales, she said.

Kinetic will also launch another scooter from the Sanyang Industry's stable.

The Taiwanese company recently picked up an 11.1 per cent stake in Kinetic Motor.

Through this venture, Kinetic plans to launch a range of scooters with engine capacities from 50 cc to 150 cc.

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