BANGALORE: Dutch electronics major Royal Philips Electronics is looking at acquiring firms in the healthcare and lifestyle space in emerging markets, including India, to broaden its product portfolio and boost its share in domestic markets by introducing new range of televisions and music players over the next 12 months.
“We will launch new products over the next six to 12 months in India,” Philips Consumer Electronics Global CEO Rudy Provoost said on Thursday.
He said the company was focusing on introducing new CRT and LCD TVs to enhance its market share to 10% from the current 6% share in the country.
The €30.39 billion company would continue to acquire firms in healthcare and lifestyle segments in emerging markets that include Brazil, Russia, India and China, besides some Asean countries. “These are the markets that we discuss as a prime agenda at our board meeting,” he said. However, he declined to comment on whether there were immediate plans to buy out firms.
“We will continue our acquisitions process to further broaden complementarities that gel with ours in consumer electronics space,” Provoost said.
Philips is also evaluating small- and medium-scale acquisitions in peripherals and accessories part on the consumer electronics portfolio in emerging markets.
Provoost admitted that Philips is behind its Korean rivals LG and Samsung in the television segment in India, but pointed that a slew of televisions and music players, including MP3 players, would be launched to aggressively increase its market share. “We have been a bit late, but we definitely want to be part of the game,” he said. Philips Consumer Electronics India CEO K Ramachandran said though company has no presence in washing machines or refrigerators segments in India, it is very active in medical electronics, lighting and audio products. Philips is restructuring its business plan following the sale of a majority stake in its semiconductor business recently. It is also looking at options to build more cost-effective equipment for the healthcare industry.
“We will build cost-effective equipment for the healthcare industry here over the next three to five years. How do we do? Can we get into health care delivery like mobile care units that can be used in rural areas? We are discussing these issues,” Ramachandran said.
Provoost said its India innovation campus in Bangalore, which employs over 1,100 professionals, generates nearly 50% of the software for digital equipment of Philips and has migrated towards healthcare and lifestyle products from semiconductors in the past 10 years.
