The Hindu Business Line : Minda-Valeo venture plans starter motors facility

New Delhi May 14 The joint venture between Minda Industries Ltd (MIL) and French auto component manufacturer Valeo is looking to set up a manufacturing facility in Pune or Chennai for producing starter motors, which are used in cars to start the engine.

The facility, to be set up with an initial investment of Rs 100 crore, will also manufacture alternators that generate electrical current in batteries of car engines.

MIL had earlier announced that it would be forming a joint venture with the 10-billion Valeo, without specifying details.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Nirmal Minda, Managing Director of MIL, said: "We will set up a manufacturing facility with a capacity of one million unit each for alternators and starter motors."

He added: "As per the current plan, we will manufacture these product lines for Valeo, 80 per cent of which would address the needs of the domestic market and 20 per cent go towards exports."

Initially, the company was considering Pune to set up the manufacturing facility.

Now that Mahindra and Renault-Nissan have announced plans to set up auto manufacturing facility in Chennai, MIL is reviewing the location.

Giving further details about the joint venture, sources in MIL said that Minda is likely to have 30 per cent stake.

Mr Minda said that the structure and name of the company would be finalised by June.

The N.K. Minda Group has 19 manufacturing units in India and recently forayed into production of batteries.

It plans to begin commercial production of batteries from the Pant Nagar plant by June.

The company plans to export 500,000 units out of the plant's total capacity of four million units, said Mr Minda.

The Group is planning to invest nearly Rs 500 crore over two years to augment capacities. The BSE-listed MIL clocked net sales of Rs 97.55 crore for the quarter ended December 2006.