Grindwell Norton Ltd has declared that the Company has formed a Joint Venture group in Bhutan in affiliation with the Singye Group of Bhutan.

The joint venture information bobbed up Grindwell in early trading (10:55 am) at Rs 152, up 2.22% on BSE. It also touched an intraday high of Rs 155 and an intraday low of Rs 152 during the day.

Today, 10,997 shares were traded on the counter. During the past one quarter, the average daily volume in the stock was 20,903 shares on BSE.

Grindwell will hold 70% of the equity capital of the JV and the Singye Group will hold 30%. The JV, which has been unified and is named ‘Saint-Gobain Ceramic Materials Bhutan Pvt Ltd’, will carry out a project for the fabrication of Silicon Carbide. The average project cost is likely to be about Rs 340 million. The Royal Government of Bhutan has okayed the foreign direct investment (FDI) proposal.

Grindwell Norton had got into a non-binding arrangement to clear out its complete shareholding in Lincoln Helios India (LHIL) on 26 April 2007. LHIL is a venture between the company and Lincoln Germany. Each partner holds 50% of the equity capital. The equity capital of LHIL is Rs 1 crore comprising of 10 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each.

GNL makes bonded abrasives, coated abrasives and super abrasives. Its other key business sections are ceramics & plastics, comprising manufacturing of silicon carbide and refractoreis.