27th February 2001

Together with its partners in India, Irizar has finalised an agreement to set up a new joint venture in the country.

The new company will be called IRIZAR-TVS Ltda. and will have its headquarters in the city of Madurai, 500 km. from Madrás ( Chennai) in the south of India.

Irizar’s partners in this project are two leading companies in the sector in India. Ashok Leyland was set up in 1948,. Its head offices are in Madras in the south of India and it currently has a workforce of 13,600 people. It is the leader in the coach sector with sales of 14,000 vehicles/year in a market totalling 25,000 vehicles, with forecasts for 30,000 in five years. It also operates in the truck market, with sales of 25,000 vehicles a year. It is the 14th biggest company in India with an annual turnover of US$440 M. It also has 400 technical service centres all over the country. The HINDUJA Group has a 70% holding and IVECO a 30% holding in the company.

T.V.S. was set up in 1911. Its headquarters are in Madurai, also in the south of India, 500 Km. from Madrás. It has a workforce of 24,000 people. It owns 16 companies, of which 6 are joint ventures, two with British companies, two with Japanese companies and two with US companies. It is the 11th biggest company in India with an annual turnover of US$1,600 M. It has 124 sales offices and 100 service centres in India.

Each of the three partners, T.V.S. , ASHOK LEYLAND and IRIZAR will have a 33.3% holding in the new company IRIZAR-TVS Ltda.

The new company IRIZAR-TVS will have two production plants, one in Pudokotai and another in Viralimalai. With a workforce of 550 people it will manufacture and sell products for the city bus and intercity coach sectors as well as the minibus and luxury coach sectors. For the latter market segment it will introduce the Intercentury model, which is currently manufactured at the Ormaiztegui plant. The production rate for this model will be 500 vehicles in 2002, which will be sold in India and in different Asian and African countries. For the city buses, intercity coaches and Minibuses, Irizar will provide technology to improve their design and production processes, which will result in improvements in quality making these the first European level products in India.

With the new company, IRIZAR will increase its market presence in 10 new countries, as well as with a further 15% of the population of the world. This means that IRIZAR will be present, in terms of sales, in 65 countries in which 85% of the population of world live.