Micromax Reveals Its Plans To Enter China Market

India’s leading home-grown handset maker Micromax is looking to enter the China market next year as it aims to become the No. 5 player worldwide by 2020, in an intensely competitive market.

For achieving this it may raise cash through a public listing or strategically align with a partner, a top executive said.

Vikas Jain, one of the four co-founders of Micromax Informatics, India’s No. 2 smartphone player said that unless it was to enter the largest market it will not be able to make it to the top five players club.

“We are in the second-largest market, and we’re not afraid of being in the largest market as well, so you might see Micromax launching in China sometime soon,” Jain said at Rise conference in Hong Kong, pointing to the fact that all top players including Samsung and Apple are present in China, players that the company competes with at home as well.

“So unless we do that, the top five will elude us,” he added.

The company which has entered a few international markets including Russia, where it is No 3, has been facing stiff competition from Chinese players like Lenovo , Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi in India. It still lags behind Samsung which leads the Indian mobile phone market.

The China market which has nearly 800 million smartphones in circulation, facing saturation. However, it still accounts for 31% of the global volumes, which makes the market a very compelling reason for Micromax.

While the company claims it is profitable and it does not need cash infusion in the short term, it is open to a strategic alignment, with a possible financial injection from a partner. It may also look at a local stock listing.

“There is no pending requirement to raise funds, and we’ve actually started to invest in the wider ecosystem. The company could do with more cash coming in, which would accelerate growth a we look for acquisitions and invest in start-ups.”

Micromax was in talks with Alibaba to raise $1.2 billion for a 20% stake last year but the deal fell through.