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Ashok Leyland ties up with AVL of Austria

The Project Approval Board under the Industry Ministry has permitted Ashok Leyland Limited to join hands with AVL of Austria for upgrading its current range of commercial vehicle engines.

The tie-up would be purely technical and would not amount to any foreign equity infusion, sources in the Industry Ministry said in New Delhi.

Confirming the tie-up, Ashok Leyland Managing Director R Seshasayee said the upgradations would include making the powertrains compliant to the year 2000 emission norms to be applicable from April 1 next year.

Talking about the company's performance in the current fiscal, Seshasayee said ALL expected to record fairly robust growth in the second half and end with around 20-25 per cent overall growth in sales.

''Last four months have been good for us and we seem to have left the recession behind our back. However, the real surge in demand is yet to come.''

Ashok Leyland had sold 2,271 vehicles in July 1999, up 25.12 per cent over sales of 1,815 vehicles in July 1998. The company sold 2,176 trucks in the Indian market and exported 95 vehicles in July. It produced 3,122 vehicles in July 1999.

ALL has managed to cut its losses by 51 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal to record a net loss of Rs 16.22 crore down from Rs 33.2 crore a year earlier. With this, the company seems to be moving out of the severe recession as its sales for the quarter registered a 30 per cent growth to Rs 476.5 crore from Rs 367.8 crore in the same quarter last year.

Other income stood at Rs 52 lakh, which was lower than the previous year's Rs 1.16 crore while total expenditure was Rs 452.48 crore up from Rs 353.28 crore a year earlier.

UNI

Business