The Hindu Business Line : TACO in talks to buy co in Europe

TACO is eyeing a turnover of $500 million this fiscal and is expecting to wrap up the acquisition deal in three months , its Managing Director, Mr D.S. Gupta said. The deal would be the Tata Group company's first overseas acquisition.

The company is also in talks with small companies located in South Korea, Europe, and the US for acquisitions, Mr Gupta said without giving any details. He added that TACO is looking at companies having sales of up to $500 million.

Further, with its export-oriented focus, TACO is aiming to become a billion-dollar firm by 2010.

"We expect the contribution of exports to our revenues to rise significantly. At present, while 15 per cent of sales are coming from exports, we expect this figure to cross 50 per cent in a few years. We have identified interiors and electronics as our focus areas. In fact, we could look at acquiring technology companies, and the venture capital route could be one of the options for the same," Mr Gupta said.

TACO currently exports to car makers such as General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Honda. The company has about 13 plants and 16 joint ventures for manufacturing a range of automotive components at various locations in India.

The joint venture partnerships, which involve both equity participation and technology flow, are with companies in the US, Europe, Japan and Korea.

TACO today also announced the formation of a joint venture firm called TACO MobiApps Telematics Ltd (TMT), in partnership with Singapore-based telematics company MobiApps, to provide end-to-end fleet management and vehicle-tracking solutions.

TMT has initiated discussions with Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland for installing its product as a standard fitment.

"We are talking with both Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland to be an original equipment supplier," said Mr Praveen Gupta, CEO, TACO MobiApps Telematics.

TMT, in which TACO holds 58 per cent and the rest is with MobiApps, will be investing close to $3 million over the next three years and will initially be outsourcing most of the manufacturing.

With an eye on the growing market of commercial vehicles in the country, TMT hopes to sell about 2,50,000 units by 2008.

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