"We hope that this international alliance would in the near future, result in a joint venture for greenfield projects to manufacture a variety of vitrified tiling in India," Leonardo Ceramica's chief executive officer, Mauro Gandolfi, told newsmen here.

Right now SPL has a technical tie-up with Cooperativa Ceramica di Imola Group company, Leonardo Ceramica, for a technical fees and royalties of $1 million.

SPL will hold majority stake if the joint venture with Leonardo Ceramica materialises, SPL managing director Shreekant Somany said.

"Leonardo will invest $1 million in the proposed joint venture with SPL and hold 30-40 per cent stake," Goldolfi confirmed.

He said the joint venture might be struck within the three years.

Currently, SPL is working in tandem with the Italian company in utilising Leonardo Ceramica's technology to increase sales of the vitrified tiles under the brand name `Greviti' in India and exploring new export markets.The Rs 136-crore company, which has a domestic market share of 21 per cent of the Rs 720 crore ceramics tiles industry, exports the Somany brand of tiles to the European Union, UK, Australia, New Zealand, West Asia and some African countries.

SPL is making concerted effort to increase the size of the market for vitrified tiles in India, Somany said.

The company's Kassar plant in Haryana, having capacity of3 ,000 sq mt per day, will manufacture the vitrified tiles.

SPL has installed machineries imported from Societa Impianti Termoelecttrici Industriali SPA (SITI) from Italy in the Haryana unit specifically for Greviti.

At present, vitrified tiles constitute 5 per cent of the total 100 million square metre tiles market in India and is slated to grow by substantially, SPL senior vice-president Abhishek Somany said. Asked whether Leonardo has plans of making India its export hub for Asia, Somany said "plans are afoot to complement each others products in new markets as well as the existing markets."

SPL expects a sales turnover of Rs 240 crore this year of which Rs 40 crore would be from the sales of the new brand, he said.