FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Germany's Thyssenkrupp (ETR:TKAG) and India's Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders have signed an agreement to participate in a submarine tender by the Indian Navy that sources said has a value of around $5.2 billion.
As part of the planned cooperation, Thyssenkrupp would take care of engineering and design, while Mazagon would be in charge of construction and the delivery of six submarines the Indian Navy has tendered, Thyssenkrupp said.
"We look back on a trusting and decade-long partnership with India. The boats we built in the 1980s are still in service today," Oliver Burkhard, CEO of Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and a member of Thyssenkrupp's management board, said.
"We are very proud of that and would be delighted to continue contributing to India's national security in the future. We are ready when India calls," he added.
Thyssenkrupp shares were up 1.6%.
In March, India approved a budget of 560 billion rupees ($6.8 billion) for its navy, which has 16 conventional submarines, 11 of them more than two decades old, along with two indigenous nuclear-powered submarines.
Signing of the MoU took place in Mumbai in the presence of German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, who a day earlier signalled that Thyssenkrupp was likely to bid for the project.
($1 = 82.4899 Indian rupees)