The Hotline group, India“s largest CRT manufacturer by production capacity, has mapped out a INR 6.2 billion expansion programme.
Significantly, the INR 15 billion group is planning to enter the gla…
The Hotline group, India“s largest CRT manufacturer by production capacity, has mapped out a INR 6.2 billion expansion programme. Significantly, the INR 15 billion group is planning to enter the glass panels business. Post-expansion, the workforce is expected to increase by 1,500 to 8,500 at Malanpur (near Gwalior). The group is investing INR 2 billion for glass panels in Hotline Glass Ltd. Hotline has just signed a deal to buy the UK-based plant machinery of LG.Philips, the largest CRT player in the world, with a three-year moratorium on payment. The plant is being shipped to the group“s integrated facility at Malanpur and the glass panel unit is expected to be commissioned in 2005. Hotline, with a production capacity of eight million picture tube units, including display tubes (CDT) for computers, is adding another line of two million units by 2005. The company has signed the deal to purchase the line from Hitachi, Singapore, for INR 600 million. This is being combined with plans for expansion into large-screen picture tubes and plasma units. The total capacity expansion of these activities is expected to absorb another INR 2.4 billion. “Our ultimate plan is to have a capacity of 16 million picture tubes. We will review our capacity given market dynamics in the next two years,” said Hotline managing director V N. Masaldan. Hotline CPT Ltd Head (Finance) and Joint Managing Director D. C. Mathur said, “We are looking at a mix of internal accruals and debt for expansion. However, given the way we have structured our capex and our easy cash-flows, we would be able to cover a large part of the funding internally.”