Carrier Corporation had obtained Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to up its stake in the Bangalore-based company by purchasing the stake of two overseas commercial bodies and the Indian shareholder last week.

Sources said the company is now poised to step up the pace at which Indian subsidiary's expansion and diversification plans are implemented.

Carrier Refrigeration had drawn up a Rs 32-crore proposal to expand its scope of operations in the country to add a wide range of commercial refrigeration products finding application in cold chain last year.

A part of this investment (Rs 12.7 crore) was brought in by Carrier Corporation in March this year.

The joint venture partners-theOCBs-Taja Holdings Inc and Global Intertrade Ltd, and the Sarin family-together holding 53.90 lakh equity shares expressed inability to bring in their share.

Carrier is planning a greenfield facility for manufacturing commercial refrigeration products including truck refrigeration and transport airconditioning equipment, at Whitefield Industrial Area in Bangalore. The land for the facility has already been allotted and the company expects to take possession of the property next month.

The new facility is expected to commence production next year. For the interim period, while the green-field facility is erected, the company is manufacturing some of its products at a leased factory. Commercial production at this facility commenced in March 1999.

Carrier Refrigeration, earlier known as Carrier Transicold, has been operating in India since 1992 assembling/manufacturing, sourcing, importing, marketing, distributing and servicing advanced airconditioning and refrigeration equipment, systems, parts andaccessories in transport applications.

The company has been making losses since inception and as of March 1998, it had accumulated losses of Rs 7.6 crore.

The company was floated with Carrier Corporation holding 51 per cent stake, OCBs 44.64 per cent and Sarin family holding 4.36 per cent.

Last June, the company obtained permission to increase its stake to 88 per cent through subscription to preferential allotment of equity shares. At time of obtaining nod to increase its holding to 100 per cent, Carrier Corporation had increased its stake to only 77 per cent, while the OCBs held 20.72 per cent and the Sarin family 2.03 per cent. Had Carrier Corporation subscribed to 88 per cent stake as permitted by FIPB last June, the shareholding of OCBs would have been reduced to 11.42 per cent and that of the Sarin family to 1.11 per cent.