Chennai, June 7 (IANS): Rebranding itself, air compressor major Elgi Equipments Ltd is looking at acquiring distributors overseas to increase its market share at a fast pace and also set up assembly lines abroad, a top company official said on Wednesday.

Targeting to become number two in the global compressor market by 2027, the company hopes to touch a revenue of $1 billion in five year's time from the current revenue of around $230 million.

"Our acquisitions will be in developed markets like the US and Europe. We are looking at acquiring existing distributors in those markets," Managing Director Jay Varadaraj told reporters here.

Agreeing that the target is certainly a "Hanuman" jump from the current position, Varadaraj said he is confident of achieving the target owing to the product's technology.

He claimed that Elgi's air compressors are more power-efficient than competing products in the overseas markets.

Varadaraj said the company will set up an assembly line in the US once the sales volumes there touch 1,000 units per year.

According to him, the company may invest around Rs 1,000 crore in the short term beefing up its infrastructure while progressing towards its target of becoming number two in the global compressors market a decade down the line.

"We are not interested in acquiring a competitor as they will be having some baggage," he added.

Varadaraj said globally the air compressors market is estimated at around $15 billion and the Indian market is around $600 million.

He said the company's revenue is shared equally between domestic sales and exports.

Queried about plans for the company's products for the automotive sector, Varadaraj said the company is planning to reorient that business contributing around 10 per cent of the total revenue.

Speaking about the rebranding exercise involving new logo and colour scheme, Varadaraj said it was done by the Brand Union agency.