BackIndia, France unveil deals worth upto $20 bn
India, France unveil deals worth upto $20 bn
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New Delhi: France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday unveiled upto $20 billion worth of defence, atomic energy and civil aviation deals with emerging market giant India during a four-day trip to the country.
Following are details of signed deals between India and France, agreements close to completion, and possible future deals:
Signed Deals:
Areva
In a deal estimated at €7 billion ($9.3 billion), French nuclear power group Areva signed a framework agreement with state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India to provide two water pressurised reactors to a site in Maharashtra.
Construction for the reactors, the first in a series that France is expecting to supply, will start next year and operations will start by 2018. The deal includes the supply of reactor fuel for 25 years.
Airbus
State-owned carrier Air India and private airline Jet Airways signed contracts to lease four and 10 Airbus A330 aircraft respectively from the European group Airbus, in separate deals worth a total of €2.8 billion ($3.7 billion) based on the catalogue price.
Michelin
French tyre maker Michelin signed a protocol contract with Tamil Nadu to invest around €600 million in a factory.
Advanced talks to seal deals
Thales
Indian and French officials are close to signing two deals with European defence electronics group Thales to modernise the Asian giant’s ageing air force.
Negotiations are under way on a €1.5-billion deal for Thales to upgrade India’s Mirage fighter jets, and an agreement for Thales to equip the Mirage jets with missiles worth €700 million.
MBDA
European missiles and missile systems manufacturer MBDA, whose major shareholders are BAE Systems, EADS and Finmeccanica, are close to signing a deal with India to jointly develop surface-to-air missiles in a deal worth €2 billion.
Safran
French defence and aerospace conglomerate Safran, is in advanced negotiations to jointly develop a fighter jet with India in a deal worth €500-€700 million.
Other possible deals?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was still hopeful that India would also buy the Rafael fighter jet produced by France’s Dassault Aviation.
Dassault faces stiff competition in the race for the $11 billion deal, currently the world’s largest single military contract, from the Typhoon aircraft made by the Eurofighter consortium and other US and Russian bidders.
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