The Hindu Business Line : Escorts acquires 100 pc stake in Polish co

ESCORTS Ltd on Wednesday announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Escorts Agri Machinery Inc, US, has acquired 100 per cent equity in the Polish company, Farmtrac Tractors Europe Sp.zo.o (FTES).

The acquisition comes in the wake of a major export order worth $8.56 million that Escorts AMG won recently from the Ghanaian Government for Escorts Tractors and other farm mechanisation equipment.

The acquisition will enable Escorts to expand its European base, by increasing the reach of its Farmtrac range of tractors, with a deeper penetration into the extremely competitive Western European markets and fast growing African, Asian and Latin American markets.

The company will benefit from the opportunities offered by the emergence of Poland as a manufacturing and marketing hub for the delivery of tractors to Western and Central Europe after it became a part of the European Union in May 2004. This move will enable Escorts to target countries such as Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, France, the UK and Italy more effectively.

FTES already has a distribution network of 56 dealers in Poland and 10 distributors across key EU and Central European markets such as Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, etc.

"After the enviable order we won recently from the Government of Ghana and this latest acquisition of our Polish JV, we intend to actively seek a larger market share for our Farmtrac Tractors in European countries and further strengthen our brand equity in international markets in the times to come," said Mr Rakesh Chopra, Business Head, Escorts Ltd, Agri Machinery Group.

In June 2000, Escorts had initially taken up 49 per cent stake in FTES, which was subsequently enhanced to 64 per cent in May 2003. FTES, which was earlier known as Pol-Mot Escorts Sp.zo.o., is a Polish limited liability company with share capital of approximately $2 million.

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