Zee News
 
Mumbai, Aug 15: For the tech savvy but cost-conscious Indians, this could be one offer they can't resist -- a laptop for Rs 15,000.

Allied Computers International (Asia) (ACI), the only player to focus solely on the laptop space in the country, plans to launch this laptop in the first quarter of next year.

And at this price, the laptop's penetration could swiftly exceed that of the personal computer, the company hopes.

"We presently sell laptops priced below Rs 20,000 and the response has been encouraging. We now plan to launch our laptop priced around Rs 15,000," Hirji Patel, Managing Director, ACI, said.

A five-year-old company with investments totalling Rs 10-12 crore till now, ACI plans to enhance its production of laptops from the present 10,000 units.

It is expected that the company would scale up its production to around one lakh units by end-2008 with the introduction of the new laptop.

"The production figure seems astronomical but remember the price of our laptop will drop dramatically to below USD 350 or Rs 15,000. Besides, we will be building up our infrastructure to support this production," Patel said.

The new laptop will weigh less than a kilo and be much smaller in size than the conventional laptop now in use, he noted.

The company, which has scheduled its IPO to raise Rs 6 crore for the last week of this month, has obtained SEBI approval for it. "We hope to obtain roc (registrar of companies) approval within the next few days," Patel said.

Patel said that the issue size has been kept deliberately small as "we want to grow steadily and garner resources for the limited purpose of building up our sales and maintenance network."

Patel claimed that ACI is the only company specialising in laptops and has sold nearly 20,000 units in the last five years.

"The reason why we have gone slow on sales is because we needed to build up our service and maintenance network. With this IPO, we will be able to do so."

ACI plans to set up a service hub at neighbouring Vasai along with 20 service centres pan-india with the proceeds of the IPO. "We will also be purchasing some equipment and automating our processes," he informed.

The company plans a public issue of 50,00,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 2 per share aggregating Rs 6 crore which it proposes to list on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).