Lumax Industries to spend 2 bln rupees on expansion

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Auto lamp maker Lumax Industries Ltd will invest two billion rupees by March 2009 to build three new plants and to upgrade its existing facilities, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Lumax, in which Japan's Stanley Electric Co Ltd holds 46.3 percent, is a supplier to Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero Honda and Ford.

The firm is planning three greenfield plants in Singur, Pantnagar and Haridwar, Executive Director Deepak Jain told reporters.

Singur is in West Bengal, where Tata Motors has a plant to make the Nano, the world's cheapest car. Pantnagar and Haridwar are in Uttarakhand.

Lumax will modernise its facilities in Daruhera, near New Delhi, and in Chakan in Maharashtra.

Lumax will expand capacity to produce lamps for 8.5 million vehicles from 6 million vehicles now, Jain said. It has an order book worth 1.5 billion rupees, to be completed over three years, he said.

The investment will be funded through the money it received from a preferential allotment of shares to Stanley Electric, and through debt and internal accruals, Jain said.

For the year ending March 2008, Lumax sees profits flat at last year's level but revenue rising 3.5 percent to 5.5 billion rupees. In 2006/07, profits almost doubled to 182.84 million rupees and sales rose 30 percent to 5.4 billion rupees.

"Our growth is in line with the trend in auto industry," Jain said, referring to the slowing in the Indian auto industry.