In the wake of regulatory norms in place, Maruti Suzuki India is hoping that the delayed minority shareholders' voting would happen soon.
The crucial voting could allow parent Suzuki to own and invest in the Gujarat plant. The minority shareholder voting was delayed because the country’s largest carmaker found that the government had moved some amendments in 2013 Companies Act.
“We thought it would be imprudent of us to vote on under an Act which is under an amendment. So, we postponed that,"
As the Act was under amendment, other people who had to make changes, including
He said: "We expect that the Gujarat government's action would also be completed possibly in the next one week or ten days. After that we will come to all of you to vote in the support of the project."
The company had initially planned to set up a third plant in Gujarat to meet growing demand. However, in January last year, parent
Opposing the move, Maruti's institutional investors approached SEBI, seeking its intervention to safeguard the interests of minority shareholders. Private sector
Later, Maruti decided to seek the approval of minority shareholders after tweaking some of the earlier proposals for the Gujarat plant, which SMC had decided to take over.
Highlighting the importance of the Gujarat plant in the company's scheme of things, Bhargava said: "This year if we grow in double digits our capacity utilisation will become almost 100%. We will be producing over 1.4 million vehicles during this fiscal."
The Gurgaon and Manesar plants put together (1.5 million units annually) don't have much more capacity left after that, he added.
"Certainly in 2016-17 we hope that we will somehow manage. In 2017-18 we will need the Gujarat plant. Work is going on the plant at full swing and we will be on schedule to commission the plant," he said.
The Gujarat plant is envisaged to have a total installed capacity of 7.5 lakh units annually. It is expected to be operational by May 2017.
(Image: Indiatimes)