India“s Hotline Group has bought out Picvue, its Taiwanese joint venture partner in Hotline Glass. The Indian promoters have acquired the 14.44% equity stake in Hotline Glass held by Picvue, one of t…
India“s Hotline Group has bought out Picvue, its Taiwanese joint venture partner in Hotline Glass. The Indian promoters have acquired the 14.44% equity stake in Hotline Glass held by Picvue, one of the largest producers of LCD micro-display products in the world, for an undisclosed sum. The local promoters have now increased to 58% their holding in Hotline Glass, which makes glass funnels for TV picture tubes . The public holding in the company is 25% with the rest held by financial institutions and private corporate bodies. Confirming the development, D. C. Mathur, Hotline Glass director and Group finance head, said: “This completes buyouts of foreign equity partners in the Group companies. Consequently promoter Anil Gupta has increased his shareholding in all Group concerns. This is one of the steps towards achieving group integration in the future.” Hotline Group bought out Wittis, a Hong Kong-based electronics component manufacturer, its JV partner in Hotline Wittis Electronics and Hotline Wittis Display Devices, in 2003. It previously bought out LG Group“s interest in the picture tube venture LG Hotline CPT two years ago. All three entities are now privately held companies within the Hotline Group. Hotline Glass, which is one of the two publicly listed companies of the group, (the other being Hotline Teletube & Components) is now undertaking a major expansion project with capital outlay of INR 2 billion, by adding glass panels to its product portfolio. Glass panel production in India is dominated by Videocon International. The glass panel unit, which will be located at Hotline Glass“ main plant at Malanpur, is expected to be commissioned in 2005. When fully operational, it will significantly increase turnover. The Group will receive a boost in its backward integration drive for picture tubes as a result of the global shortage of glass panels predicted for 2005.