Leyland to pay $35 m for Czech co Avia
Ashok Leyland will pay around $35 million (Rs 157 crore) for the acquisition of the truck unit of the Czech company Avia, company sources said.
Ashok Leyland formally took over the unit today. A Leyland team took charge of the operations in Prague, sources said. The unit produces light commercial vehicles of 6-tonne, 7.5-tonne and 9-tonne capacities.
From now begins the "process of integration" and scale up. Two ranges of trucks are to be produced — one with Cummins engines for the European market and the other with Leyland engines for markets such as Iran, Turkey and South Africa, where Euro-IV emission norms are not yet mandatory.
Because of the addition of Leyland engine-powered vehicles, the unit’s production would be ramped up. Currently , it produces only about 2,000 vehicles a year, but Ashok Leyland intends to "ginger up" the activities to around 5,000 vehicles a year.
"This is our first step in the European market and we hope to leverage this for expansion of Ashok Leyland’s export footprint not only in the extra-European market, but also into the European market itself," Mr R. Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, told Business Line.
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