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Thales aims to become an Indian company

Interview with Mr. Francois Dupont, CEO and Country Corporate Director, Thales International India Pvt. Ltd.

How has Thales progressed in India during the last few years and what are your plans for 2008.
Mr. Francois Dupont:  We have focused on stabilizing our business during the last few years. Our revenues have grown from Euro 50 million a year and stand at around Euro 200 million presently from defence electronics, aerospace/avionics and civilian businesses. As you know, we have won a major contract to provide the ticketing system for the Delhi metro and have sold In Flight Entertainment (IFE) systems to Kingfisher and other airlines. Going forward, we aim to consolidate the various divisions of Thales International India Pvt. Ltd. into one entity and form Thales India Pvt. Ltd. This is part of our policy to become an "Indian entity". Our focus will also be on providing better service to clients and so will expand our service and support network.

Will this help Thales to achieve better sales in India?
Mr. Francois Dupont:  The objective here is to become an Indian company so that we are seen as a local entity with Indian executives manning top positions. The way Thales works is to develop technology in the country it operates in, set up local companies and joint ventures and use this as a manufacturing base for exports. An example is what we have done in Australia for air traffic control where it is used as an export base for ATC products. Another example of how Thales' local identity helped is that Thales U.K. has won contracts for the British MoD's tactical UAV and aircraft carrier programs. This is the strategy we aim to follow in India too. For Thales to acquire an Indian identity, it will take time and my job here is to set up the foundation for it.

Are you looking for Joint Venture (JV) partners in India to extend your footprint?
Mr. Francois Dupont:  JVs are part of our growth strategy. We already have a JV with Rolta to develop command and control systems for the Indian Army and have announced another one with Samtel. Going forward we will have one in the civilian sector with a major Indian company in the transportation sector, the name of which I cannot reveal right now. We prefer 50:50 JVs in specific high technology sectors and are open to such opportunities. We intend to constitute a local base and address the country as a local company.

What prospects do you see for Thales on the defence side considering India is on a procurement overdrive?
Mr. Francois Dupont:  The defence and aerospace division of Thales is addressing this to offer appropriate products and solutions. As you must be aware we are part of the Scorpene submarine project of the Indian Navy. Our JV with Rolta is addressing the C2 requirement of the Indian Army and we have also supplied thermal imaging systems to the Navy. We intend to look at every opportunity in the C2, C3, C4 and avionics and electronics requirements of the Indian armed forces. We are looking at opportunities in electronics, sensors and radar requirements of the three services.

France along with Russia has been one of the long term suppliers of defence hardware to India. Do you see this changing after the high profile entry of American companies who are bidding for big ticket items?
Mr. Francois Dupont:  I was looking at press clippings of media reports of the 126 aircraft tender of the Indian Air Force. More than three quarters of the reports were about American companies and products. Does this mean they are winning the tender? U.S. companies tend to have big PR budgets and are more into supplying whole systems and platforms. Thales is a systems company and is part of the Dassault consortium for the 126 aircraft tender of the Indian Air Force.

Source: Defenseworld.net