By IANS
Kolkata : Ashok Leyland will operationalise its joint venture agreement with Nissan Motor Company Ltd in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment by the end of the current financial year. Ashok Leyland is the flagship company of the Hinduja Group.
“We are hopeful of making the joint venture agreement effective by the end of this current fiscal. The first stage of the partnership between the two companies will include designing, development, manufacturing and cooperation for distribution and technology transfer of LCV products under both Ashok Leyland and Nissan brands,” Ashok Leyland director and Hinduja Group executive vice-chairman Subir Raha told reporters on the sidelines of the 34th National Management Convention here late Thursday evening.
Raha said the company wants to continue with its activities of manufacturing commercial vehicles in India. To increase its global footprint aboard, the company wants to export its LCV products to the US and European markets. Presently, Ashok Leyland exports LCVs to over 20 countries around the world.
“The joint venture agreement will be a large investment. The company is also trying to expand its annual production capacity of the existing units. We are also looking at some acquisition for developing technology as well as design for the LCV segment,” he said, adding that the company already has a technology development centre at Chennai.
Ashok Leyland, with a sales-turnover of more than $2 billion in fiscal 2006-07, wants to increase its production capacity to 100,000 from 84,000 vehicles per year.
“We also have plans to introduce corporate branding, corporate IT, corporate monitoring, corporate human resource etc. as a part of the company’s restructuring measures,” Raha said.