The Rs 1,500 crore company, a 50:50 joint venture between Honda Motor Company of Japan and Hero group of India, would invest about Rs 100 crore during the current fiscal and rest of the amount would be brought in during the next two years, top company officials said.

The company had no plans to go for market borrowing this year and the entire Rs 100 crore investment would be through internal accruals, the sources said.

On the financial front, HHML was expected to perform well as net profit of the company is likely to go up by over 65 per cent to Rs 120 crore during the just ended fiscal year as compared to Rs 77 crore net profit in the previous year, sources added.

HHML is likely to record Rs 170 crore crore profit before tax (PBT) in 1998-99 as its turnover is expected to be Rs 1,500 crore during the year. Though the resultsare yet to be announced officially by the company, it is expected to be buoyant by the sales and financial performance.

Hero Honda has planned to launch three new models during 1999-2002, one model every year, to retain its leadership in the four-stroke motorcycles segment by offering choice and upgraded models to its customers.

The company, which launched a powerful 156cc sporty look motorcycle `CBZ' in the last fiscal mainly to attract young and college going people, is currently working with Honda of Japan to introduce another model this year.

The new models, expected to be in the range between 100cc and 156cc engine capacity segment, is being designed and developed by Honda Motor Company of Japan.

It has also provided feedbacks received from consumers and market to Honda Motors for developing new models, sources said.

The proposed models would be technologically advanced than the existing 100cc models and would not be as costly as `CBZ', priced in the range of Rs 54,800-59,000, sourcesindicated.

In its bid to be present in every segment of the motorcycle market, it plans to develop new segments for its two-wheelers for catering to the needs of every kind of buyers.

It was also considering entry into the scooterate segment by introducing a low priced motorcycle, they added.

Hero Honda plans to retain its existing successful models such as Splender, CD-100 and CD-100ss and the new models would be placed along with the existing ones as there is no plan to phase out any of the running models.

The company, which is one of the sponsors of the World Cup cricket '99, is also eyeing the rural market in a big way as it feels that there exists a tremendous scope in the coming years.

It plans to position its 100cc bikes more prominently in the rural market and working towards providing a complete range of slightly more powerful motorcycles for urban buyers.

HHML also wants to increase its market share in the north India to 50 per cent from present 40 per cent. It is facing toughcompetition from scooter manufacturers in the north Indian market which is traditionally a scooter market.

During the year 1998-99, HHML sold 5,30,607 vehicles and exported 11,376 units as against 407,563 motor cycles sold and 18,402 vehicles exported during the previous year.

It has targeted to sell about 6,50,000 vehicles in 1999-2000, sources said.