Austrian brickmaker Wienerberger set to foray in India

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The Vienna-based company aims to open as many as 10 Indian brick making sites close to major cities or towns within five years, CEO Wolfgang Reithofer said.

India's $12 billion real-estate industry is expanding by 30 percent a year, according to Ernst & Young and expected to grow five-fold to $60 billion by 2010 and $90 billion by 2015. By contrast, US realtors expect new home sales to fall 10 percent this year.

Rising incomes and urbanization have fueled demand for housing in Indian cities such as New Delhi and Bangalore, where prices have tripled since 2004.

Brick use is more widespread than in other Asian countries because of India's colonial past, Reithofer said.

"India is the most interesting for me because it's a large population that's brick-minded," the 58-year-old CEO said. "We have a lot of sites and ideas and we're investigating how we should do it."

Shares of Wienerberger, named after the Vienna hill where the company opened its first plant in 1819, have risen 32 percent in the past six months, giving it a market value of 3.61 billion euros.