Mikko Koskivirta, director of Valmet Technology (Thailand) Co Ltd was in the city on Saturday to participate in a roadshow of Valmet. He told The Financial Express that both the companies have agreed on it but kept away from disclosing the amount of stake it is taking up. ``No, we do not think it is the right time to disclose the amount of equity stake we will be taking but all we can say that it will be substantial,'' Koskivirta said.

When asked whether they will be the majority partners, he gave a sceptical reply, ``May be, but we will not mind to be a minority partner either.''

SK Sadhu, the chairman and managing director of Mechano, said that final decision on the Valmet's stake will be taken some time by the end of this month. ``Once we have decided amongourselves on the exact amount of stake, then Valmet will be making a formal application at the Foreign Exchange Promotion Board,'' he said.

Valmet is the world leading supplier of paper, board and tissue machines, stock preparation equipment, paper finishing machinery, conventing machines and related process. In 1997, the company recorded a turnover of $2,736 million.

Recently, another major paper machine manufacturer, Rauma Corporation of United Kingdom has merged into Valmet. In 1997, Rauma registered a turnover of $2,415 million. In the merged company, Rauma is holding a minority stake of 42.5 per cent and the rest by Valmet.

Koskivirta said that name of the merged company is yet to be decided but it will listed in the Helsinki and New York stock exchanges. ``With this merger, we will have machines starting from raw material collection from the forests to manufacturing high quality paper,'' he said.

However, Valmet has no plans to start manufacturing facilities in India. ``We have a manufacturingfacility in China and we have no such plans for India. Instead we will operate through our partner, Mechano and may bring the spares and other necessary parts from other parts of the globe,'' Koskivirta added.

Mechano started its operations as a manufacturer and supplier of paper mill spare parts and slowly it has grown into one of India's leading supplier of complete process systems, machinery and services to the pulp and paper industry.