Joint managing director of KEL Sulajja Firodia Motwani revealed that the company will be signing an agreement with a foreign partner in a week's time for designs and few other inputs. The idea, according to her was to a have a presence in all categories including the motorcycle segment which is expected to offer significant volumes and ultimately contribute to turnover growth.

KEL's existing Koregaon Bhima plant which presently manufactures the K4 100 cc step-through motorcycles will be used for the manufacture of the new four-stroke motorcycles.

The company has entered into a five year license and technical assistance agreement with Honda Motor Company. Under this agreement, Honda has agreed to provide technical know-how, critical vehicle parts and access to its export market even after sale of Honda shares in KHML.

The agreement signifies that Kinetic will continue to export the Honda brand scooters ZX and Marvel to 55 countries through the Honda distributors.

Presently exports contribute over 10 per cent to the turnover. Motwani expected this to increase to 15 per cent this year.

It may be recalled that KEL has acquired 51 per cent equity from Honda Motors Limited (HML), Japan and had taken over total control of KHML- a move that has been unprecedented in Indian corporate history. The acquisition was made by KEL at a cost of Rs 35 crore. This has taken KEL stake in the jv to over 70 per cent. The rest is being held by public. The share transfer of 77 lakh shares at Rs 45 per share from Honda to KEL will be completed on December 24 after which Kinetic will not be using the Honda's name. The Japanese auto major will continue to sell scooters under its own brand name on the overseas markets. Kinetic Honda will not be able to use the Honda brand name for the vehicles once the share transfer is complete.