With the sale of Indal Electronics, Indal has moved out of the printed circuit boards (PCBs) manufacture as a part of its strategy to focus on the core business of aluminium. The proposal was also cleared by the industry ministry a few days ago, sources said.

After the takeover, Austria Technologie plans to inject fresh equity capital to the tune of Rs 22 crore (over $5 million) into the company over the next three to four years.

Indal Electronics has a share capital of Rs 38 crore of which Rs 25 crore is preference share capital. The company was set up as a division of Indal when the aluminium major diversified into other businesses due to licensing restrictions in the aluminium sector.

The division was hived off as a separate wholly owned-subsidiary in 1996. Indal Electronics has a capacity to manufacture 80,000 sq. mtrs of complex12-layer and six layer PCBs at its plant at Najgangud in Karnataka.

The company has a good track record and notched up a net profit of Rs 7.5 crore on a turnover of Rs 74.60 crore in 1997-98. It is also a significant exporter of PCBs to Europe, USA and Australia.

Austria Technologie was a state owned company before its privatisation in 1994. It has an asset base of $153 million. The major sectors served by Austria Technologie are telecommunication industry, instrumentation, computer and automotive.