Bharat Forge subsidiary - David Browns ink JV

Bharat Forge Ltd. (BFL), through its wholly owned subsidiary, BFIVL has signed a shareholders’ agreement with David Brown System India (Holdings) Limited, part of David Brown Group, a leading global manufacturer of gearing products and services to form a JV company in India. The shareholders’ agreement was signed by Jim McColl OBE, Chairman of David Brown and Subodh Tandale, authorised signatory & Director, Bharat Forge. The JV Company will be named ‘David Brown Bharat Forge Gear Systems India Limited’ and will serve the Indian heavy engineering industry, supplying both new build gearboxes and comprehensive aftermarket services to high growth, high demand sectors including power, mining, defence, wind, rail and steel. Initially, ‘David Brown Bharat Forge Gear Systems India Ltd’ is intended to be operational from Bharat Forge’s current facilities. However, by the middle of 2012, it is intended to have a dedicated site for gear box assembly and testing. Further, the JV company intends to set-up two service centres in Bangalore and Kolkata by the end of 2011. Additional locations for service centres in Delhi and Hyderabad are being planned by the end of 2013. These service centres will be designed to world class standards, providing rapid aftermarket service and support to key industries. Jim McColl noted: “This is an extremely exciting development in David Brown’s growth strategy. We recognise India is a high growth territory for gearing products and services and so we are delighted to have found such a well-respected and prominent partner in BFIVL. This joint venture enables us to develop these high demand & growing industries by providing customer proximity through a local network. I look forward to working with BFIVL”. B.N. Kalyani, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Forge Ltd. said, “Aligned with the Kalyani group’s strategy to diversify into non-auto business sectors and also to enter into equipment manufacturing this joint venture is one more step in the direction of reiterating our strong commitment to providing world class technology to the fastest growing core infrastructure market in India. We are proud to be associated with a highly respected global company like David Brown with its rich heritage and world class technology. This is the first of our many steps to follow in the areas of providing high quality after-sales service to core-infrastructure areas”.