EXIDE TO PICK UP STAKE IN CHLORIDE UNITS 

Calcutta, Nov 22  :    Calcutta, Nov 22 :  Exide Industries, the Rs 900 crore city-based battery maker, is planning to pick up a stake in the Singapore and Sri Lankan subsidiaries of Chloride Eastern, its Singapore-based parent company. The move will provide a fillip to Exide Industries' plan to emerge as a global player in automotive, industrial and solar battery businesses. In a notice to the stock exchanges, the company said its board of directors will meet on Friday (November 24) to discuss the possibility of 'acquiring a shareholding in two lead acid storage battery companies currently operating out of Singapore and Sri Lanka.' Industry mavens said the two companies were Chloride Batteries South East Asia Pte Ltd and Associated Battery Manufacturers (Ceylon) Ltd of Sri Lanka. Exide officials, however, refused to name the companies or specify the stake that the company intended to pick up in the two companies on the ground that the issue was 'price sensitive''. If it goes through, the deal will help Exide gain access to a number of battery brands such Chloride, Dynex, and Jupiter. The arrangement could also give Exide access to Lucas automotive and motor-cycle battery brands which are marketed by Associated Battery of Sri Lanka. Last April, Exide had decided to try and leverage its association with the Rajan Raheja-owned Chloride Battery South East Asia to route its batteries into the international markets. Exide, whose exports were confined largely to Russia, and West Asia until then, was hoping to capture a slice of the market in the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and China. The present deal will further cement that association. EIL is not only India's largest automotive battery manufacturer but also holds the pre-eminent position as a maker of industrial batteries. Exide has eight factories in India and is putting up a ninth plant at Bawal in Haryana. It has already invested about Rs 80 crore to beef up its existing facilities. The company is expanding battery capacity at its Hosur plant from 450 million ampere-hours (Ah) to 550 million Ah in the next four months.The plant will focus on rechargeable lead acid batteries for which it has teamed up with Shin-Kobe and Furukawa Battery Co. Ltd. The plant will also produce batteries for electric car applications. The Sri Lankan battery company's factory at Ratmalana has recently been modernised with the installation of a Sri Lanka Rs 4 crore mill to produce 14 tonnes of lead oxide per day. But its domestic market share has come down from 80 per cent to 60 per cent after the import duty was reduced from 50 per cent to 20 per cent in 1996.