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Bajaj Auto wants to boost Latin America sales

India's largest two and three-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto Ltd, facing sluggish sales at home, is planning to step up exports to Latin America which offers big growth opportunity, a senior company official said.

"The need of the hour is to go global," president Madhur Bajaj said on Tuesday from his office in Pune.

"Growth rates in traditional markets are coming down, therefore we need to explore new markets and Latin American markets are very fertile ground," he said.

He said Bajaj Auto had entered into a technical collaboration with Kofave SA, an automobile dealer in Brazil, to set up an assembly line there for three-wheelers.

Bajaj Auto will offer technical expertise to Kofave to set up the assembly line and will ship knocked down kits of three wheelers. Kofave will assemble the three-wheelers, adding some local content, he said.

Bajaj declined to give any targets for the number of vehicles he expected to be sold from this arrangement.

"Bajaj Auto is the largest manufacturer of three-wheelers in the world and there are no other big players in Latin America, so three-wheelers are expected to do well," Bajaj said.

Bajaj Auto exports to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well as some European and Latin American countries.

Bajaj said the Latin American market was showing promising growth rates.

Bajaj Auto exported 5,004 vehicles to Latin America in 1999-2000 (April-March) and has already exported 4,081 units in the first eight months of the current fiscal year.

The firm posted a 61 per cent fall in second quarter net profit to Rs 538.3 million, hit by falling domestic scooter sales and lower margins in its rapidly growing motorcycle business.

Bajaj Auto shares were trading Rs 0.60 lower at Rs 261.25 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, while the Sensex was down 0.27 per cent at 3,915.42.

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