Hotline Group has bought out its Taiwanese joint venture partner Picvue in Hotline Glass. The Indian promoters have bought the 14.44% equity stake held by Picvue, one of the largest producers of LCD micro-display products in the world, in Hotline Glass for an undisclosed amount.

The local promoters have now increased their holding in Hotline Glass - which manufactures glass funnels to be used in picture tubes for televisions- to 58%. Public holding in the company is at 25%, the rest being held by FIs and private corporate bodies.

Confirming the development, D C Mathur, director at Hotline Glass and Group finance head, said, "This completes buyouts of foreign equity partners in the Group companies. Consequently the promoter Anil Gupta has increased his shareholding in all Group concerns. This is one of the step towards achieving group integration in the future."

Hotline Group had bought out Wittis - Hong Kong based electronics component manufacturer - its JV partner in Hotline Wittis Electronics and Hotline Wittis Display Devices last year. This apart Hotline had bought out LG Group in its picture tube venture LG Hotline CPT two years back.
All the three entities are now privately held companies within the Hotline Group.

Hotline Glass, which is one of the two publicly listed companies of the Group, the other being Hotline Teletube & Components, is now on a major expansion project with capital outlay of Rs 200 crore.

The company, which is making glass funnels, currently is adding glass panels - a single player driven industry in the country as of now led by Videocon International - in its product portfolio.

The glass panel unit which is being located at the existing mother plant at Malanpur is expected to be commissioned next year. Once fully operational, it will push up the turnover of Hotline Glass significantly.

The Group in turn will get a leg up in its backward integration drive for picture tubes specially in light of the fact that a global shortage of glass panels is being predicted next year.