"A Nano in every handset segment" Lemon Mobiles, one of the new handset players in the Indian market, is looking to garner 6-7% of the handset marketshare in the next three years, targeting 7 million handsets of an approximate 100 million handset market. For this, the company will look to make $100 million investment, including an investment in its own handset manufacturing facility in India. Responding to MediaNama's question on how they intend to fund the investment, IB Mehra, Executive advisor, Fastrack Communications, was evasive, saying that they could look at all forms of investment, not ruling out private equity placement (though he said that PE players tend to lookto exit quickly), investments from its promoters, or even a listing. Lemon will use the money raised to expand operations within India, and also launch its brand of handsets in other emerging markets, including Latin America, South East Asia and Africa. In India, Mehra said, a lot hinges on being able to meet their target of garnering 10% of handset retail shelf space. The manufacturing facility in India will initially assemble handsets and later seek to manufacture them, given incentives to local manufacturing from the Indian government, and the need to derisk imports of handsets from China. Lemon (Fastrack Communications) expects that the facility will account for 20% of its total volumes by the end of 3 years, and will also be used to develop its GPS devices, apart from handsets. Additionally, the company has plans to introduce 3G handsets in…
