CHENNAI – Delta Electronics has invested $60 million in overseas subsidiaries partly to build a manufacturing plant in India and to penetrate the Australian market.

Delta said about $13 million would be spent to build the new factory for Delta India Electronics, producing solar inverters in Chennai, and to support its working capital.

The plant will take eight months to build and operations are scheduled to begin before the final quarter of this year.

Also, a budget of $22 million has been approved for an R & D equipment investment at Delta Energy Systems, a subsidiary in Germany.

Delta reported a net profit of 4.15 billion baht last year, up 47% from 2009. Net sales rose 24% to 35.73 billion. In the final quarter, net profit dropped 27% year-over-year to 520 million baht, as revenue increased 25% to 9.5 billion.