India's Karbonn Mobiles eyes listing by 2016 with Android sales boost

Karbonn Mobiles, the third-largest smartphone maker in India, expects to go public by 2016 as it bets on sales of Android devices made in partnership with Google to boost revenue growth.

"Frankly, I've been delaying it for the last couple of years because I wanted to know my valuation … and now my valuation has gone much higher in the last few years," chairman Sudhir Hasija said.

Hasija said he was waiting for the Android One launch in September - timed with the start of India's holiday shopping season - to boost revenue growth.

The company expects revenue to grow to 80 billion rupees (HK$10.2 billion) in the year to March 2015 from 45 billion rupees a year earlier.

"I am looking at 20 per cent revenue in two years now from exports to Europe, South Africa and Russia," Hasija said. "Google is also supporting us … probably this gives us a very big leap."

Karbonn now gets 5 to 7 per cent of its revenue from exports largely to South Asian markets such as Nepal and Bangladesh.

Google said in June that it was working with three Indian manufacturers to develop a sub-US$100 smartphone for the Indian market this autumn, getting Android software into the world's third-largest and fastest-growing mobile market.