Diversified business group Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is the latest business house to form an in-house private equity fund. The company will make proprietary investments from Mahindra Partners.
Anand Mahindra, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of M&M told ET Now, a domestic business news channel that the new division will be the group’s growth driver in the future. The PE vertical is a ‘fairly significant change’ in the architecture of the group, Mahindra added.
He further stated that unlike conventional private equity, Mahindra Partners will be allowed more elbow room to scale up its start-ups and not pressured to get in and out of a business within a certain period of time.
From now on, Mahindra Partners will look after new business opportunities for the group and will determine whether there is enough potential to enter in or not.
R-ADAG, Aditya Birla group, Nicholas Piramal and Tatas have already tested the private equity waters.
M&M is part of a $ 6.7 billion conglomerate Mahindra Group. It has presence in sectors including automobiles, trade, automotive components, information technology, holidays, financial services, retail and logistics, engineering, steel and infrastructure development.
In the first quarter ended on June 30, 2009, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd saw a growth of 26.3% in its gross revenue from its corresponding figure in the previous year. The revenue of the company stood at Rs4751.3 crore as against Rs3760.7 crore during the corresponding period last year.
The net profit before tax for the quarter was Rs 538.1 crore as against Rs213.4 crore in Q1 last year – a growth of 152.1%.
