Carrier to form JV with Midea; JV to invest Rs 500cr in India

 Air-conditioner maker Carrier today said it has signed an agreement with China-based G D Midea Holding to form a joint venture for manufacturing and distributing air-conditioning systems in India.

The company said the joint venture will invest up to Rs 500 crore in the next 5-6 years on new product development and setting new manufacturing facility in India.

"This venture brings together the strengths of two leaders in the global air-conditioning industry," Carrier India Managing Director Gaurang Pandya said in a statement.

While Midea offers design and manufacturing expertise in air-conditioning systems, Carrier has a strong pan-India distribution network, he said.

The joint venture will primarily manufacture and distribute residential air-conditioning systems and will bring together both Carrier and Midea's complementary residential segment operations in India.

Besides, the joint venture is planning to make sizeable investment of up to Rs 500 crore over the next five to six years to augment manufacturing scale and product range in India.

"The initial investment will include a new manufacturing facility to be located in the vicinity of the existing Carrier plant in Gurgaon, Haryana, with plant capacity of up to 1,000,000 units," a joint statement by both the companies said.

Over the next three years, it will also assess setting up a large scale manufacturing facility, it added.

"India is one of the fastest growing economies and the right place to be in. This opportunity will allow us to draw on manufacturing, technical, distribution and management experience from both parties to accelerate the growth of the new venture," Midea President (Asia Pacific) Avant Bo said.

However, Carrier said its commercial solutions and services business in India are outside the scope of this joint venture.

GD Midea Holding is one of the leading residential air conditioning manufacturer in the world. It is part of the Midea Group which manufactures and distributes white appliances products across the globe.