Aditya Birla Capital Advisors, the private equity arm of Aditya Birla Financial Services Group, has invested Rs. 95 Crores (U.S. $18.7 million) from Aditya Birla Private Equity – Fund I in Alphion India Private Ltd., the principal subsidiary of Princeton, N.J.-based Alphion Corp.
Alphion develops, manufactures and globally provides optical fiber-to-the-premises (FTTx) access systems, subsystems and integrated photonic devices. The company’s access systems offer optical networking solutions for the emerging FTTx market and its portfolio includes a variety of products for central office, outside plant, customer premise and network management. Alphion is a full member of the ITU FSAN group and a leader in developing key technologies for the next generation of passive optical networks. Alphion is the pioneer in developing all optical PON (passive optical network) network extension solutions to extend the reach of broadband services. Alphion GPON solutions enable the convergence of wireless and wireline networks as it is suitable not only for multiple-play voice, high-speed Internet, data and video services but also for backhaul of WiMAX, 2G/3G/4G cellular and future wireless networks.
Aditya Birla Capital CEO Bharat Banka said: “Alphion is a unique player in the telecom sector offering proprietary R&D-based, very high-speed optical networking systems and solutions which empower carriers and local service providers to deliver high quality services with substantially lower operating costs. Apart from India, where we expect encouraging growth prospects with investments in broadband and data services infrastructure, Alphion is also positioned to capture customers in other emerging markets. We are excited to partner with Alphion and play a value-added role.”
“The global market for PON equipment currently is about $4 billion a year and is growing at an annual rate of 20%. The current Indian market for passive optical network equipment is estimated at about $300 million a year and is expected to grow rapidly as service providers are in the process of rolling out FTTx services across India. Alphion currently has significant market share of this segment in India and emerging markets and is poised to further expand its position,” Banka said.
“We are pleased to have ABCAP join us as a major partner,” said Alphion Chairman and CEO Bharat P. Dave. “Their strong endorsement of Alphion and our vision will allow us to continue to be a leading provider of FTTx network solutions in India as well as other emerging global markets.”
