The company had initially obtained clearance from the Foriegn Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to manufacture white goods in March 1996. Under the terms of the approval, the company was required to set up the facility by March 1998. It has asked the central government to extend the validity of the approval by two years till March 2000.

The 74 per cent subsidiary of South Korean electronics company proposes to locally manufacture goods such as washing machines, refrigerators and airconditioners in the next few years.

A Samsung India application to the foreign Investment Promotion Board stated that the Korean parent had brought in additional equity of Rs 28 crore into the Indian subsidiary last year in order to set up a white goods manufatcuring facility.

Samsung India was initially set up as 51:49 joint venture between Samsung Electronics Company and Reasonable Computer Solutions of the Videocon group in 1995 with authorised and paid up capital of Rs 32 crore. In 1998, the company raised the authorised capital to Rs 100 crore and paid up capital to Rs 60 crore increasing Samsung's stake to 74 per cent.

Samsung sources said the company intends to invest in the white goods facility early next year, intially to manufacture either refrigerators or washing machines.

A decision on the quantum of investment would be taken soon. Meanwhile, the company is sourcing washing machines from Electrolux-Voltas for semi-automatic washing machines and direct cool refrigerators from Videocon to sell it as a "Samsung" brand product. This was done to create market awareness for these products, the application stated.

The company is also selling some imported goods such as frost free refrigerators, fully automatic washing machines and airconditioners to "create a market for these products".

According to details provided by the company in the application, Samsung India has achieved sales turnover of Rs 356.66 crore in the six month ended June 1999. Of this, Rs 259.56 crore came from sale of colour television and microwave ovens, and Rs 97.10 crore from other goods. Sale of imported goods had yielded the company Rs 63.38 crore or 18 per cent of the turnover.

The net sales for the year ended December 31 was Rs 493.83 crore, which was up 41 per cent over the previous year's sales income. The company is targetting to achieve a turnover of Rs 800 crore this year.

The application further added that the company would begin export of Samsung products next year, in order to fulfill the export promotion capital goods (EPCG) obligation of $38.35 million. The company may initially export Colour televisions to the SAARC nations.