‘Scale and synergies to drive M&M’s accelerated growth': Anand Mahindra

Anand Mahindra, the chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra, has laid out two magic mantras of 'scale and synergies' for accelerated growth in the immediate future. Addressing the shareholders at the 77th Annual General Meeting, he informed that the Group has identified four main business areas and nine other businesses with high growth potential.

1. Classic Legends, last mile mobility business identified as ‘growth gems’
2. Singapore's Temasek to invest Rs 1,200 crore in Mahindra's EV arm

"The first objective now is scale, scale, and more scale… The Mahindra Group has another Brahmastra – a secret weapon – and that is the power of synergy. Synergies of scale, synergies of purchase, synergies of customer bases, synergies of technology. All these positively impact the bottom line,” Anand Mahindra said.

Each of the Group’s growth gems has to grow five times in the next five to seven years in terms of market cap, he said, adding that he is confident that the Group will witness an astounding pace of growth in the next few years. In the auto business, the Last Mile Mobility Business and Classic Legends were identified as growth gems.

Mahindra’s EV plans

Speaking of the company’s EV business, Anand Mahindra said the group is decarbonising Indian cities by providing clean mobility solutions through EVs and its related ecosystem.

Earlier this year, the World Bank arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) had invested Rs 600 crore in Mahindra’s Last Mile Mobility division. Last week, the company announced that Singapore-headquartered global investment firm Temasek will invest Rs 1,200 crore into Mahindra Electric Automobile Limited (MEAL) for a 1.49 percent to 2.97 percent stake. With this investment, the EV subsidiary’s valuation goes up by 15 percent, to up to Rs 80,580 crore. Temasek will join British International Investments (BII) as an investor in Mahindra’s EV arm.

At the general meeting, Anand Mahindra told shareholders, “IFC marks this investment as a significant step towards scaling up domestic production of electric vehicles to drive EV adoption across India and also help the government deliver on its climate targets.”

The brand is already the leader in the electric three-wheeler segment with over 65 percent market share, and it is vying to be the leader in the emerging passenger EV segment. The company says it expects almost 20-30 percent of its total sales to come from EVs by 2027.

The Group has committed an investment of Rs 10,000 crore for the EV business in the coming decade and has lined up five born-electric vehicles to launch by 2026 – the XUV.e8, XUV.e9, BE.05, BE Rall-E and the BE.07. Read more on the EVs here. 

With inputs from Amit Vijay M