"After four long years of effort, we secured orders from Japaneseengineering giant Komatsu for track-shoe bolts and nuts. This is part of oureffort to ensure sustained revenue growth as a dramatic spurt in domesticdemand is unlikely," company chief Suresh Krishna said. A supplier to globalauto majors like General Motors and Ford, the Rs 350-crore Sundram Fastners(SFL) is now planning to venture into Australia, which has largely beenneglected in the past, Krishna said.

"Our aim is to increase the share of exports in the total turnover from thepresent level of 16 per cent to 40 per cent in the next five years," hesaid, while estimating exports in this financial year around Rs 65 and Rs 70crore.

The company had posted a turnover of Rs 343.96 crore in 1998-99 of whichexports made up Rs 57.80 crore, a good chunk of which was from orders forradiator caps from General Motors for its vehicles in the US and Europe."We are also gearing up for fresh investments once our efforts to expand ourexports starts bearing fruit," Krishna said while not ruling outacquisitions in the future in case the company goes for capacity expansion.

The company had acquired the Chennai-based auto-pump makers Autolec for asum of about Rs 8 crore as a strategic investor. Shareholders of autolec hadapproved a preferential allotment of 10.31 lakh equity shares to SFL."At the moment we are trying to ensure that autolec does well after ouracquisition," Krishna said, adding that profits are likely to touch betweenRs 3.5 to 4 crore this fiscal year compared with Rs 1 crore in 1998-99.

There has been a capital infusion of about Rs 8 crore in autolec as SFLpurchase price was Rs 78 per share, and we want to ensure that shareholderskeep getting good returns. Autolec shares are currently trading around Rs102 a share. "In the past we have quietly shed divisions that were notsynergistic with our core competence," he said citing the sale of thecompany's software division. Asked about the company's performance in thesecond half of the current financial year, Krishna said SFL would maintainthe first-half performance when total sales grew by a robust 35 per cent.Sales during April-September this year stood at Rs 219.87 crore against Rs162.95 crore a year ago.

Elaborating on the export thrust, Krishna said SFL was now selling fastnersto engineering giant cummins and was also looking to increase its sales togeneral motors. Asked about the plans by the US auto giant to source moreparts for its new "Corsa" model to be premiered in India next year, he saidtalks were still on though General Motors had not promised any definitevolumes