Kubota chairman and president Yasuo Masumoto has again indicated his readiness to acquire a foreign maker of farm machinery by the end of this year to expand its overseas operations.

Masumoto also said that Kubota plans to raise the ratio of overseas operations in its group sales to more than 70% by 2018. In an interview with the Kyoto News he said  "We have to speedily make an acquisition of a foreign farm machinery maker to expand business in Europe and the U.S. where agriculture is centered on field farming."

Apart from the acquisition, Kubota is studying the possibility of outsourcing production of such machinery as well as developing it by itself, Masumoto said. He also expressed his readiness to expand operations in Asia, in particular in India amid its remarkable economic growth, saying Kubota plans to launch versatile tractors suitable for use in India by the end of this year.

By expanding overseas operations, Kubota which bought a controlling interest in Kverneland in 2012, hopes to double its group sales from Y1,008 billion in 2011 Y2 trillion in 2017.