MUMBAI, July 1: Crompton Greaves plans to invest $2,40,000 (Rs 86.4 lakhs) in a joint venture company in Dubai to manufacture and market medium voltage vacuum switchgears. The company will have a 40 per cent stake in the venture styled Power Equipment Ltd (PEL) where the balance will be held by the Dubai-based Link Middle East Limited (LMEL) which manufactures and markets electrical products.

The proposal is yet to be approved by the centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), states the resolution which seeks shareholders' approval at Crompton Greaves' 60th annual general meeting here on July 25.

Crompton will provide the technical know-how and management support to the joint venture for which it will be paid technical know-how fee and royalty on sales. LMEL will make its distribution systems available to the joint venture which will increase its product range subsequently.

The notice states that the joint venture "will provide access to the international market at competitive rates by manufacturing these products outside the country." Crompton Greaves also plans to invest Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1.16 crore each in two other joint ventures, CG Telenetwork Systems and Globalstar India Satellite Services.

CG Telenetwork is a venture with Marubeni Corporation and Sumitomo Industries where Crompton Greaves will have a 50 per cent stake with the Japanese companies holding the balance.

The company will have access to the latest Japanese technologies, systems and procedures for implementation of "outside plant portion" of telecom projects. In the case of Globalstar India Satellite Services, Crompton will have a 34 per cent stake while the balance will be taken up by Hyundai Electronic Industries Company, Hyundai Corporation, DACOM Corporation and Pertech Computers.

The company will cater to transmission and reception of data related activities. For the year ended March 31, 1997 Crompton Greaves reported a net profit of Rs 45.72 crore, a 40 per cent fall from Rs 73.98 crore in 1995-96. The company restructured its activities into four business groups -power systems, industrial systems, consumer products and the digital group.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.