Taiwan's Kent Industrial to acquire 40% stake in Miven of India

Taipei, Aug. 29, 2005 (CENS)--Kent Industrial Co., Ltd., one of Taiwan's leading manufacturers of surface grinding machines, will acquire a 40% equity stake in Miven of India by way of a private-placement arrangement.

Kent said it has struck a cooperation deal with Miven, an Indian machinery manufacturer on the Mumbai Stock Exchange. With the equity acquisition deal, Kent will export key parts on a semi-finished knock-down device (SKD) basis to help Miven assemble grinding machines and machining centers at its hometown and develop into the largest manufacturer of surface grinding machines in India.

Headquartered in Taipei County, northern Taiwan, Kent has set up two production facilities in Taiwan and mainland China. The Taiwan facility is positioned as the production and research and development base for precision machinery while that in the mainland is built to reduce production costs.

Lu Kuo-tung, president of Kent, noted his company has seen preliminary effect in the division of labor across the Taiwan Strait. "But a localization strategy has to be materialized if we want to boost overseas sales," Lu noted. "To that end, we selected Miven as our partner in India. In the near future, we will consolidate the resources in Taiwan, mainland China and India to develop operating synergy."

He hoped his company's cooperation with the India-based Miven would shape up a new model for domestic machinery manufacturers to penetrate the so-called BRICs nations, which also include Brazil, Russia and mainland China.

According to Lu, Miven is a listed machinery maker on the Mumbai Stock Exchange. A subsidiary of Firurs, one of India's largest conglomerates, Miven currently concentrates on the development and production of lathes.

At present, Miven has three production facilities in India, one for assembling lathes with the other two focusing on producing machinery accessories. The company also produces such as military products as missiles for the Indian government.

With the cooperation deal, starting from August Miven will begin dispatching personnel to Kent headquarters to get the know-how of assembling the machine tools developed by the Taiwanese firm.

Kent said it would also help Miven reduce costs in procuring such key components as ballscrews, power turrets and worktables by locating appropriate suppliers of components here in Taiwan.