ICL Plc has held 40% of International Computers Indian Manufacture Pte Ltd, a Poona-based company traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange, ever since India brought in its foreign exchange act of the late 1970s that required multinationals to sell a majority stake in their Indian subsidiaries to local interests. Now, however, the UK company’s controlling shareholder, Fujitsu Ltd, is getting serious about India, and so it is to take a 10% stake in the company, popularly known as ICIM. It will invest about $500,000 for the stake, the money being put up by Fujitsu Ltd and Fujitsu Australia Pty Ltd, its leading overseas subsidiary company. The name of the company will also be changed to Fujitsu ICIM. Reason for the interest is that a string of other Japanese companies are now opening for business in the liberalised Indian market, and a visible Japanese connection at ICIM will give the company a big head start in winning their local information technology business. Fujitsu and ICIM will also set up a joint venture in Australia, Fujitsu ICIM Software Technology, headquartered in Sydney, to market Indian software development services in Japan, Australia and the Asia Pacific region. ICIM’s annual turnover has nearly trebled to $50m from $15m over the last six years. Fujitsu’s first major investments in India are two telecommunications equipment ventures: in March, it set up Fujitsu Optel Ltd, to manufacture optical transmission equipment (CI No 2,383, 2,400); it also formed Fujitsu India Telecom Ltd to make telephone exchanges following the government’s decision to make it a preferred supplier last year (CI No 2,252).
