Padma Shri Shri Surinder Mehta, Chairman, Prime Group address the gathering on the occasion of formation of a new company "Prime Meiden Limited" a Joint Venture between Prime Electric Ltd., (A Prime Group Company of India) and Meidensha Corporation of Japan in the field of Power Transformers and Transmission and Distribution projects on 23rd May, 2014 at Hotel ITC Maurya, New Delhi.

Excellency Mr.Takeshi Yagi, Hon'ble Ambassador of Japan in India and our Chief Guest for this JV ceremony this evening,

Respected Shri J. D. Seelam ji, Hon'ble Minister of State of Finance, Government of India

Hon'ble Mr. Hamasaki san, President of our joint venture partner company Meidensha Corporation of Japan, Hon'ble Vice President & CFO Mr. Masaki san and all the respected members of the delegation from Meidensha Corporation; Our JV partner from Russia Mr. Illya Beniaminov and his son Mr.Murad Beniaminov,

Hon'ble Ambassadors, High Commissioners, Excellences, senior Govt. Officials, Distinguished guests including senior functionaries of several leading Japanese companies in India, family members and friends present here this evening, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all this evening, to announce and celebrate the signing of this very prestigious joint venture, between Prime Electric Ltd., a subsidiary of PCI Ltd., the flagship company of the Prime Group; and Meidensha Corporation, a 2.5 billion dollar Multinational conglomerate of Japan, with a 117 years history in power & energy sector in particular.

The joint venture company, as was just announced a short while ago, has now been re-named as " Prime Meiden Ltd." , and we are delighted and very proud indeed at this major milestone in the 28 years journey of the Prime Group that I was privileged to have founded in 1986.

But before I proceed, First and foremost, I would like to extend a very warm welcome and convey my sincere thanks on behalf of Prime Meiden and on my own behalf, to the Hon'ble Ambassador of Japan in India, Excellency Mr. Takeshi Yagi san.

Excellency, we thank you very much for your kind presence here this evening which we see as a source of great encouragement to Prime Group as well as to Meidensha Corporation, and to our new JV "Prime Meiden".

As we all know, Japan and India have had very cordial and friendly relations since time immemorial. Our culture and our heritage have a lot of commonalities, and also, Japan has always stood by India as a strong partner in our economic development. It may surprise many, but some Japanese companies have been active in India for more than a hundred years now, contributing immensely to our country's economy. And this contribution of the Japanese companies as we have all witnessed, has virtually been in an over drive, particularly during the last couple of decades. Maruti Suzuki, Hero Honda, The Delhi Metro Project of late, and many others, are well known examples of the Indo-Japanese collaborations and joint initiatives in India.

The visit of their Majesty Emperor and Empress of Japan, who visited India last year after a gap of 53 years since their last visit in 1960, and that too, undertaking this journey at the age of nearly 80, it surely touched our hearts. Your Hon'ble Prime Minister Mr. Abe San’s visit, earlier this year, further accelerated the pace of Indo-Japanese trade and commerce and further enhanced the pace and quantum of Japanese investment in India, particularly in projects of vital importance for India's Infrastructure development.

Our JV with Meiden is also inspired by such Indo-Japanese initiatives and we are confident of making our own humble contribution in that direction through Prime Meiden, to further strengthen this relationship between our two countries, which in any case is destined to grow, leaps and bounds. Thank you once again your excellency, for being with us this evening on the launch of this JV and for all your encouragement and support, which we deeply value.

This evening, I have the greatest of pleasure to introduce and to extend a very warm welcome to Hon'ble Mr. Hamasaki san, President of our JV partner Meidensha Corporation of Japan, on his Meiden visit to India, and I am sure this visit will surely pave the way for him to come to India on many many more occasions in the years ahead, following Meiden's first major investment in a joint venture outside japan i.e. in Prime Meiden. I am aware of your visionary and aggressive plans to considerably expand Meiden's business outside Japan in the coming years, and I would like to assure you our fullest support from India in achieving your set goals.

President Hamasaki san, I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to your entire team present here today. Each one of your team members, many of whom have been handling this JV proposition from the very beginning, led by your very dynamic Vice President and CFO Mr. Masaki san, Directors Mr.Suggi san & Mr.Ikarashi san; and your senior management team consisting of Mr.Furuya san, Mr.Wakui san, Mr.Hirakawa san, Mr. Asakura san and all the other members of your team.

They have all worked very hard for last over a year, to make this JV a reality. Without the cooperation and positive support of all of them and of their colleagues back home, it would not have been possible to complete the long drawn processes of concluding this JV in time, as was envisaged and planned by both sides. My sincere thanks to each one of you and thank you all for being with us this evening to participate in this formal launch of the JV that you have so successfully concluded.

Everyone must be keen to know a little more about this JV and I may share that Meidensha Corporation has acquired 23% equity stake in our Company Prime Electric Ltd., now called Prime Meiden Ltd. In addition, Meidensha will also provide technology for special type of Transformers and also give access to markets where they are very strongly placed as high quality and high technology transformer providers. And as regards Meidensha, it is a 100% listed company in Japan with Sumitomo Group as their single largest shareholder. More about them you will know shortly from the address of President Hamasaki San.

The high capacity Transformers being produced in our ultra-modern facility at Nellore, and the EPC Power sector projects, the two major activities being undertaken by this JV to start with, will serve not only the Indian market, but also the African markets, the middle east, the far east, Russia and the CIS world. The synergies between Prime and Meiden, and to borrow your words President Hamasaki san, as we just heard in the Audio/Visual, we surely share the common passion for excellence in technology and quality, and therefore, we will surely make a wonderful team together, to be one amongst the best in the world in our line of business, and strive to achieve respectable heights, together as "Prime Meiden."

I am also delighted this evening, to introduce and extend a very warm welcome to our Russian partners in this JV, who incidentally, are also associated with us in two other JVs' in the Prime Group, Mr. Ilya Beniaminov and his dynamic son Mr. Murad Beniaminov, who have both come specially for this event from Moscow and we thank you very much for being here with us this evening.

We joined hands with Beniaminov family, and Mr.Murad has been a director in this company now called Prime Meiden Ltd., since 2008 i.e. since the time this project was actually conceived with a two page JV agreement signed by my son Rohan with his very dear friend Murad during their summer holidays at Monaco Beach in south of France. And obviously, no one knew at that point of time as to what shape this project will take and when ?

We sincerely appreciate your trust and your cooperation all through. Without your active participation and your strong support, it would not have been possible to have technology from VIT and then to make inroads into the Russian and CIS markets as we are now doing. Thank you so much Mr. Beniaminov and thank you Murad, we are proud of our association and of our friendship and thank you for all your valuable support, all through our very exciting journey in this project.

Murad san, your two page JV agreement with Prime Electric Ltd. has since multiplied to a 200 page JV agreement that we recently concluded with Meiden. A growth of 100 times ! And I am confident of a similar multiplication in the value of your shares too, in the not too distant a future. And we will all work hard to achieve that milestone.

I am often asked as to how we thought of entering this very restricted and this high technology based line of Extra High Voltage power transformers manufacturing, which has huge entry barriers; our peers being top of the line, and only a handful of companies, namely Siemens, ABB, Alstom, Crompton Greaves, BHEL and Toshiba who recently came in ; And I have only one answer "Destiny" But one who made this destiny work for us, was none other than the young and dynamic Managing Director of this company, my son Rohan. He brought this idea through his Russian contacts that he met through Murad and he tirelessly worked, and worked very hard throughout the project execution period of this Green field facility, lasting nearly three years, many a times staying at the project site for weeks together under extreme heat and dust conditions, eating at local Dhabas, with no toilet facilities at site in the initial times , and 24 hours busy building up the plant and building up a powerful team to man this highly technical plant. Coming from Switzerland where he did his schooling and from Oxford from where he got his engineering degree, it was really a tough call for him to execute this project in a remote location in Nellore. But he went through all this on his own initiative and without any pressure from me at all. I feel proud of him today when I see him managing this huge Industrial Enterprise with utmost professionalism and with leadership qualities, unmatched and unthinkable of, at his age.

I had heard of young blood being very dynamic and doing wonders, and I have seen that in you in real. Prime Group has grown very rapidly since you joined about seven years ago, and I feel very confident that the Group has a great future under a dynamic, and yet a very compassionate leader like you.

Thank you Rohan my son, for all that you are doing to fulfill my dreams for Prime Group and we all wish you every success in life in all your endeavors. I feel proud to see you doing and achieving all this, and doing it with great humility, that God has so kindly blessed you with, in abundance.

In the end, I would reiterate that our quest for Technology at Prime Group, and in line with our thinking and belief of "Looking Beyond Tomorrow", we always strive for perfection as we did in this project too, and the resultant outcome, with God's grace, has come out to be a world class facility as you have just seen in the Audio/Visual on this unique manufacturing facility in our country, and rated as one of the best in the world in the field of Transformer manufacturing. And this incidentally, is the ninth JV in our Group, and the largest one in our Group at present, and we are very proud about it.

We thank all those who made it possible to achieve this mission, each member of our team at all levels at Prime Group, our Bankers Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank without whose help this project would not have seen the light of the day ; I would also like to take this opportunity to thank SMBC (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) whose country head Mr.Kakita san is also present here this evening, Kakita san, your very professional and very efficient handling was witnessed and very much appreciated by all of us at Prime when you personally came over for the signing ceremony to our Headquarter and you were so well organized that within less than 45 minute of our singing the investment agreement, the funds were already in our account, and our friends from KPMG who very efficiently handled this transaction and are present here, they will surely confirm this to be one of the fastest in terms of closure and completion of a JV transaction, all within a span of just about 45 minutes. Our compliments to SMBC and to Kakita san and his team, we were truly impressed

We are also thankful to the Government of India and the Government of Andhra Pradesh, and to all those who contributed in building this technological marvel that caught the fancy of a company like Meidensha to join.

I will also take this opportunity to thank all our distinguished guests present here this evening to participate in this JV launch ceremony. We deeply value your presence and for all your good wishes and support, which we have always been getting from you all, at each step and at each milestone in our life, and without which, our journey at Prime Group and our journey of life would not have been so fulfilling and so cherished. My sincere thanks to each one of you.

And once again, I would like to convey our gratitude and very special thanks to His Excellency Mr. Yagi san, the Hon'ble ambassador of Japan in India and to all our distinguished guests present here this evening. We truly value your good wishes, blessings and support.

Thank you.