Of the Rs 85 crore accumulated losses of Maharaja International, as much as Rs 68 crore losses have been incurred after Electrolux acquired majority stake in the company 1995, company sources said.

Similarly, accumulated losses of Intron has shot up to Rs 28.72 crore as on March 31, 1998, from Rs 18 crore when the company was taken over by Electrolux in December, 1995.

Company insiders fear that losses could increase further as Electrolux has now entered into another joint venture Voltas also for manufacture of refrigerators and washing machines, which will hurt Maharaja and Intron owing to to increased competition with Electrolux-Voltas. The Electrolux-Voltas joint venture proposal was cleared by Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on June 27.

Interestingly, it is learnt that Electrolux was not asked to obtain a`no-objection certificate' from the existing partners and original promoters of Intron and Maharaja. FIPB has been of late insisting on no-objection letters from Indian partners of existing joint ventures if the foreign partner proposes to enter into a fresh joint venture with another Indian company, especially for manufacture of similar products.

When contacted Intron vice-chairman and its original promoter Inder Khosla, who is now a minority shareholder, confirmed that he had not issued any no-objection letter for Electrolux joint venture with Voltas. Maharaja International vice-chairman and original promoter Harish Kumar, who also holds considerable stake in the company, could not be contacted for his comments but company sources said that Kumar was also not asked to furnish any no-objection letter.