M&M to bid for Ssangyong

NEW DELHI: After scooping up electric carmaker Reva Electric , earlier this week, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M ) has now trained its eyes on beleaguered South Korean SUV maker Ssangyong Motor.



The Anand Mahindra-led company is understood to be among seven bidders that have submitted letters of intent to bid for Ssangyong. Faced with continued losses, the South Korean company has been witnessing a court-led restructuring since early last year. Others in the fray include tyre maker Dunlop\'s owner Pawan Kumar Ruia as well as Carlos Ghosn-led Renault.



\"We have no comment to make on the matter as of now,\" a spokesperson for M&M said, though industry sources confirmed that it has submitted a letter-of-intent .



A deal, if takes place, offers a lot of synergies to M&M . \"Mahindra gets a technological platform and access to newer markets, \" sources added. After losing out to the Tatas in the race for Jaguar and Land Rover in 2008, M&M has been active in the M&A space and has shown its keenness to take the acquisition route for growth. The company had in 2008 bought Kinetic Motors to enter the twowheeler market and early this week announced picking of a majority stake in Reva. Early this year, the company also announced that it will buy out Renault\'s stake in a domestic JV that makes the no-frills Logan sedan.



Meanwhile, the Ruia group confirmed it had submitted a letter of intent. \"We have been turning around sick companies in the past. Given our expertise in that, when this opportunity opened up in Korea, we decided to make a bid,\" a spokesman said.



A total of seven foreign and South Korean companies are believed to have submitted letters of intent for Ssangyong, 10% owned by China\'s SAIC Motor Corp. A Seoul court had kicked off the sale process for the cashstrapped company this month, and is set to receive binding bids by July 20 to pick a preferred buyer during August.



Ssangyong, which has just 2% of the Korean vehicle market, has suffered losses over the past two years and reported another net loss of 25.8 billion won in the first quarter. It aims to more than double sales this year to 85,000 vehicles and double it again to 183,000 cars by 2013 with new product launches such as the C200 SUV planned this summer, its first new model in two years, and by boosting sales in overseas markets such as Vietnam and Russia.



Buyout-Driven Growth

Total of seven foreign and South Korean companies, including M&M , Dunlop and Renault , are learnt to have submitted letters of intent A Seoul court had kicked off the sale process for Ssangyong, and is set to receive binding bids by July 20 to pick a preferred buyer during August A deal may offer a lot of synergies to Anand Mahindra-led M&M . "Mahindra gets a technological platform and access to newer markets," says a source
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