from the ground Up

by Jessica Cheam, The Straits Times, May 14 2009

Despite slumping global sales, the group is positive that Asia will be key to its future growth

TECHNOLOGY giant The Bosch Group’s appetite for investment in Asia has not been dampened despite a slump in its global sales as a result of the downturn.
The privately owned group, which deals in automotive parts and consumer goods, yesterday took the wraps off a new $21 million research and development (R&D) centre in Singapore that will be the Asia-Pacific headquarters of newly acquired business software house Innovations Software Technology.
Innovations Software offers enterprise solutions mainly for the financial services industry, but is set to enter the health care and energy management sectors with Bosch’s expertise, said Robert Bosch South-east Asia president and managing director Cem Peksaglam.
This is the group’s third investment here in recent years. In 2007, it set up a centre for R&D for information technology with a rolling investment budget of $94 million to be spent by 2010.
Last year, a $30 million corporate research and advance engineering facility housed at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was established to conduct R&D in areas such as solar energy.
Innovations’ new R&D centre and sales headquarters will employ 70 staff within the next five years and be located at Robert Bosch’s newly built $92 million headquarters at Bishan by October.
The 223,000 sq ft building will consolidate Bosch’s 400-and-growing Singaporean employees under one roof and can house more than 1,000 staff.
The energy-efficient site boasts an array of solar panels and automated window blinds that block out the sun’s heat.
The building’s green features helped it win what is regarded as the highest green building accolade this month, the Platinum Green Mark, awarded by the Building and Construction Authority.
Tough trading conditions forced The Bosch Group to report a 2.6 per cent drop in sales to ¤45.1 billion (S$90 billion) for last year.
But Mr Peksaglam said that the Asia-Pacific remained the strongest growth engine for the group and last year sales in this region grew 7 per cent to $16.4 billion. South-east Asia saw sales grow 5 per cent to hit $790 million.
The firm spent a record $8.1 billion worldwide on R&D last year, of which 45 per cent went towards developing energy-efficient and environmentally friendly products. Almost a third of the group’s revenue comes from such products.
Bosch, which has had a presence in Singapore since 1923, is currently working on developing organic photovoltaic cells with the NTU.
This uses cheaper organic materials such as polymers in place of the costly silicon used in conventional solar products.
Mr Peksaglam said yesterday that the group will continue to strengthen its foothold in the region, despite the gloomy outlook that might force Bosch into a loss this year, its first in 45 years.
Despite the challenges ahead, Mr Peksaglam said there are no plans to lay off any of the firm’s 4,200 South-east Asian staff.