GE-Triveni Joint Venture

It is a marriage of convenience for the US-based General Electric (GE) and Triveni Engineering of India as they gear up to float a joint venture to design, manufacture, supply, sell and service steam turbines.



Giving details about the joint venture, GE's India president and CEO, John Flannery said both the companies would have an equal number of board members in the new company – called GE Triveni Limited — where GE would be holding 49 per cent of shares and Triveni 51 per cent. Both the companies refused to quantify the equity, but Triveni Engineering Chairman and Managing Director, Dhruv M Sawhney, clarified that the new JV would be manufacturing the equipment at the Triveni Engineering capacity at Bangalore and would be sold with the brand name GE in the global market. Sawhney added that they were looking at a global market of $1-2 billion.



The deal is expected to be closed within six months. It would manufacture 30-100 MW steam turbines and is targetting the West Asia market for its solar-based plants. For its geo-thermal plants, the JV would tap the European, North American and Indonesian markets. The company officials added that they would also be looking at the market in steel, cement and manufacturing segments, where smaller and captive plants are been installed.



Officials of both companies believe that they would sell the product in the domestic as well as in the overseas market. But the under-tested and under-developed Indian market gives them very little scope for growth. According to industry analysts, the total market for such equipment is about four or five units per year and is estimated to be about Rs 500-600 crore. "Oil refineries are the major buyers of such units, along with steel and cement industries," says a senior executive of the power major.



However, market insiders believe that there is not much of a market in India for the 30-100 MW steam turbines.



As for the competition from other US, China and Europe-based companies, Sawhney said: ``We would not be selling them (prospective clients) the equipment alone, but a complete solution. For this, the price, competence and branding would be make us a force to recon with.''





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