Commenting upon the Union Budget 2008-09, Mr. V P Mahendru, CMD, Indo Asian Fusegear Limited, said, “The budget has provided relief to the farming sector and to the common man but missed out in providing something substantial to the industry. The 2% reduction in the CENVAT is a welcome relief. The sum of Rs 800 crore provided to the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Project along with the setting up of the National Fund for transmission and distribution reform will leverage the power distribution companies to reduce T&D losses. While we share the same ideology of a clean and green environment, there has been no provision like reduction in the duty cut in CFL bulbs which are instrumental in this regard. The issue of high duty on raw materials and other inputs that goes into the production of CFLs is still at a high rate of 14% making it costlier for the masses to adapt to”.

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Indo Asian Fusegear Ltd. (IAFL) (BSE Code 532658, NSE SCRIP ID: INDOASIFU)is India’s leading manufacturer of electrical equipments and lighting accessories. The company’s product range include wide range of electrical circuit protection equipment including distribution boards, switch boards, switch panels, fuse switches, MCCBs, HRC Fuses, MCBs, RCDs, etc. IAFL has nine manufacturing units across India. The company is also setting up one more plant at Haridwar (Uttarakhand) and one in Saudi Arabia.

New Ventures

The company has recently commissioned their ninth state-of-the-art Switchgear plant in SIDCUL, Haridwar, Uttrakhand for manufacturing MCB’s, MCCBs, HRC Fuses, switch boards; switch panels and fuse switches. This plant has been set up with a project cost of Rs 40 crore, and will have annual production capacity of over Rs. 200 crores, when fully operational.

IAFL has also forayed into power distribution business and setting up a new company called Indo Asian Power Distribution and Infrastructure Ltd. (IAPDIL) for the same. Apart from this, the company has also forayed into cables & wires manufacturing business with an investment of Rs 100 crore. The company is also bidding for six power distribution circles in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana

Indo Asian is constructing state-of-the-art CFL and HID lamps plant in Saudi Arabia in JV with Saudi National Lamps and Electrical Limited with an investment of $80 million. Indo Asian is the technology partner with 20% stake in this JV. The new company will export lighting products to 20 countries.The company also has a 51:49 joint venture with Spanish company Simon PLC named Indo Asian Simon Pvt. Ltd to set up an intelligent switching system unit at Haridwar. The plant will be on stream by end of FY08.Innovative Marketing InitiativesUnder their energy conservation drive, IAFL had a tie-up with BSES in Delhi, Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam in Jaipur and with Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam in Haryana to promote the use of CFL. The response of these scheme are so overwhelming that IAFL in talk with other power distribution companies to launch the same scheme across India

Financials

For the year ended March 31, 2007, IAFL’s turnover surged 44 % to Rs 224.9 crore as against Rs 155.7 crore in the previous financial year. The net profit during the period has increased to Rs 17.38 crore as against Rs 15.80 crore during the corresponding period in the previous year despite increased Interest and Depreciation cost for the newly set up Lighting and Wire Plants at Haridwar, the benefits which will accrue henceforth. EPS for the financial year 2006-07 stood at Rs. 11.86. The Exports showed a strong growth of 70%, increasing from 14.6% of sales in FY06 to 17.1% in FY07, with higher focus on Europe, Latin America and Africa.

Pan Indian Operations

The company is consistently developing and marketing smarter devices that manage electrical energy optimally – enabling homes, industries & the eco-system to benefit to the maximum. The company has a wide geographical market coverage including 30 offices across India, 850+ distributors, 35000+ electrical retail outlets and overseas offices in Dubai & Germany. Indo Asian has been on the approved list of most of the utilities in Middle East and Africa where it is exporting its Switchgear for the last 30 years.

Setting Industry StandardIndo Asian’s Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) was the first CFL complying to BIS requirements. The company has specialized in the production, control & conservation aspects of the electrical supply chain, setting many benchmarks in the process. Indo Asian was the first Indian manufacturer of electrical circuit protection equipment to be awarded ISO 9001 certification under the upgraded 1994 guidelines; the only company to design innovative high breaking capacity circuit breakers indigenously; the first company to manufacture DIN HRC fuses; first company to introduce compact fluorescent lamps and India’s first CFLs manufacturers to comply to Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) requirements Awards & Recognitions

The company has received the prestigious ‘The Emerging India Award 2007’ in the ‘Auto Ancillaries & Engineering’ category hosted by CNBC TV-18, ICICI Bank and CRISIL in June 2007.