Business Standard Thursday, March 7, 2002
Siemens to invest $500 million in local operations Our Corporate Bureau in New Delhi Siemens announced its plans to invest $500 million into its Indian operations today. "With our strong and reliable local presence, we are the ideal partners for realising India's needs in infrastructure development. For this, we are committing to make new investments in India to the extent of $500 million in the years to come," Siemens AG president and chief executive, Heinrich von Pierer, said. The decision was taken yesterday at a meeting of the corporate executive committee of Siemens AG which was for the first time held in India. This round of investments comes ten years after Siemens AG had announced pumping DM500 million into its Indian business in 1992. According to von Pierer, Siemens has actually invested Rs 1,500 crore since then. These investments will be made in areas like medical equipment, telecom, power and other sectors where Siemens has a presence. Some of this investment is already under way including that made in Siemens' medical equipment facility based at Goa and the upgradation of the Bangalore Airport. However, von Pierer did not specify within what time frame the investments will be made. "It depends on the state of the economy; if the economy picks up, we will bring in the investments quickly," he said. The Indian operations will play an increasingly important role in the global network of Siemens, von Pierer said. In this regard, the key focus areas identified by Siemens include leveraging the IT capabilities of Indian operations to support projects worldwide, increasing hardware sourcing from India to enhance the value chain, using local manufacturing facilities and resources to cater to the export market and enhancing local skills by increased investments in training programmes. At the moment, Siemens operations in India are spread over 12 companies. When asked if the German parent had any plans to reduce the number, von Pierer said that it could happen in the future, though the scope for reducing the number of Indian entities is limited. "We need most of these companies as we have these many businesses," he said. However, he said, in order to cut overheads, Siemens has initiated a programme of shared resources within the 12 Indian companies. The turnover of the 12 companies is Rs 3,200 crore. Siemens is also bullish on the Indian cellphone market. "The Indian market is 5.5-5.8 million handsets and is growing at 70 per cent. The market in the next one year should be another 3.5 million at least. It is a good market for us. Siemens is amongst the top three producers of cellphones in the world," von Pierer said. Business Standard Ltd. 5, Pratap Bhavan, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi - 110002. INDIA Ph: +91-11-3720202, 3739840. Fax: 011 - 3720201 Copyright & Disclaimer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
