Larsen & Toubro in joint venture with Europe's Cassidian

The production facilities of the JV will be based in Talegaon, near Pune and at Bangalore, the company said, adding that it will be active in the defence electonics market. It aims to cover manufacturing, design, engineering, distribution and marketing in the fields of electronic warfare, radars, avionics and mobile systems, such as bridges, for military applications.

About $20 million will be invested to set up the proposed JV facility at Talegoan.
L&T Heavy Engineering President M V Kotwal said, “The coming together of L&T and Cassidian is a major milestone in the area of defence electronics. It will not only serve Indian armed forces with state-of-the-art technology, but also provide a platform for making significant contributions to the global market in high-technology defence equipment.”

L&T will hold 74 per cent in the JV and Cassidian 26 per cent, informed Kotwal, who added that the JV will cooperate closely with Cassidian’s Bangalore-based engineering centre, where systems design and engineering activities will be carried out in the areas of electronic warfare, radars and avionics for military application.

Cassidian Electronics CEO Bernd Wenzler pointed out that Cassidian is prepared to bring additional capabilities into the JV company after Indian laws allow an increase of shares up to 49 per cent.