ST Kinetics establishes construction equipment company in India

S$50mln LeeBoy India investment part of company’s strategy to grow its Specialty Vehicles and Services business.

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) on Friday announced that its land systems arm, Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd (ST Kinetics), has established a wholly owned Indian subsidiary, LeeBoy India Construction Equipment Pvt Ltd (LeeBoy India), with a total investment of about S$50m, comprising S$16.7m in equity and shareholder's loan of up to S$33.4m which will be made in two phases. Immediately post incorporation of LeeBoy India, the management of the company will take up 3% of the S$16.7m equity of the company, according to a ST Engineering report..

India is currently the fifth largest construction equipment (CE) market in the world, with annual sales of over US$2.4b in 2009 and an expected growth rate of over 19% over the next five years. LeeBoy India is set up as a greenfield operation to market, manufacture and support a range of ST Kinetics' CE products, from road construction and maintenance equipment to excavators and off road dump trucks, to meet the growing needs of the Indian CE market. LeeBoy India will be located in Bangalore, one of India's key hubs for the manufacture of CE, with an extensive network of high quality suppliers and production capabilities. Bangalore also has a good supply of skilled labour, a pro-business environment with good labour relations management, and a relatively efficient power supply and infrastructure system.

The establishment of LeeBoy India is part of ST Kinetics' strategy to grow its Specialty Vehicles and Services business to become a more significant player in the global road construction and maintenance equipment, excavators and off road dump truck segments of the CE industry.

Mr Kamal Bali, a veteran with 28 years of CE industry experience, is appointed President of LeeBoy India. Prior to joining LeeBoy India, Mr Bali was the Managing Director and CEO of Escorts Construction Equipment Ltd and had led the set up of its new plant in 2008. An engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, he had held senior appointments with Same-Deutz-Fahr India Pvt Ltd, a leading manufacturer of tractors, engines and agricultural machinery, and Trafag AG, a process control instrumentation company.

"LeeBoy India will augment and expand ST Kinetics' strong portfolio of construction equipment in the road construction and earthmoving market segments. With this new company, we can now compete more favourably in the fast growing Indian market. We will localise our designs, manufacturing and aftersales support to offer our customers a differentiated value proposition. Kamal's wealth of experience in the India CE industry will immediately add value to our business. He and his management team's decision to take up equity in LeeBoy India clearly reflects their commitme nt and alignment with ST Kinetics,".Sew Chee Jhuen, President, ST Kinetics, said.

"The LeeBoy brand is well known in the United States for over five decades for its quality and innovative designs, and providing its customers with value, reliability and productivity. These indeed, are also amongst the top needs of the Indian construction and infrastructure sector today. Given LeeBoy's experience and our new, integrated approach where we responsibly engage our select customers on a product life cycle basis, we are confident that we can play an exciting new role in building India's vast infrastructure." ~ Kamal Bali, President, LeeBoy India.