NEW DELHI: The Country’s sole surviving mobile phone brand
Lava
has recast its
board
, inducting former BSNL chairman Anupam Srivastava and former Lt. Gov of Andaman & Nicobar Islands Lt Gen, Ajay Kumar Singh (Retd.) as independent directors while moving out co-founder Hari Om Rai. The company is also looking to tap
private equity players
to raise about Rs 600 crore for launching new 5G
smartphones
.
Lava, that saw a business turmoil following the arrest of Rai in a case involving Enforcement Directorate, plans to bring in new smartphones after witnessing healthy adoption of its 5G devices (Agni and Blaze are flagship models) where sales grew 250% last fiscal on sale of 1.5 million units. “While feature phones have been the mainstay for us in terms of volumes, we have seen encouraging adoption of our smartphones and thus want to expand in this segment,” Sunil Raina, the long-standing company official who has also been inducted on the board as Executive Director, told TOI here.
Raina said that Lava — which also enjoys benefits under Govt’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for smartphones — has a strong manufacturing capacity of 42 million units, which it can now use to expand business and getting new devices.
But fund-raise will be critical for the company (which had revenues of around Rs 2,800 crore last year) as it will have to battle it out with the Chinese brands such as Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, and RealMe in the market. “We are looking at all options, and also talking to private equity players. Talks are currently on and we are confident of getting success here soon.”
Lava has also inducted long-time production hand, Sanjeev Agarwal, on the board, and hopes that a revamped leadership will help investors look at the brand favourably. “We are confident of striking it big in volumes in the market. We are looking at unique initiatives, that includes a concept of providing ‘service at home’ which is offered by none of the brands. Also, design is a huge focus in our smartphone strategy, and so is the promise of a clean Android operating system without much clutter from unwanted apps.”
He said that the company also wants to expand overseas with its smartphones. “We want to build a global brand, with a strong focus on corporate governance led by a credible board,” Raina said.
