The Hindu Business Line : Honda Motor may consolidate holdings in Indian cos

NEW LAUNCH: Mr Takeo Fukui, President and CEO, Honda Motor Company Ltd, Japan, at the launch of the Honda Civic in the Capital on Tuesday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , July 4

Honda Motor Co on Tuesday said it was considering the consolidation of its holdings in different ventures in India under a single, fully-owned company, Honda Motor India (Pvt) Ltd.

``Although this company will take care of logistics for spare parts beginning with the automobile business, we are looking at the possibility of transferring the different shareholdings of Honda Japan in different ventures in India to the new company,'' Honda Motor Co South West Asia Head, Mr M. Takedagawa, said on the sidelines of a press conference announcing the launch of the new sedan `Civic'.

Interests in India

Honda has interests in the two-wheeler and car business in India, apart from power products, which is a separate division.

While it has a joint venture with the Munjals in the publicly listed Hero Honda where it holds 26 per cent, the company has partnered the Shrirams for the cars and power products business. The Shrirams currently hold 0.1 per cent in Honda Siel Cars India and one per cent in Honda Siel Power Products.

Honda also has a fully-owned subsidiary, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), which manufactures scooters and bikes. Without specifying a timeframe for the consolidation of various investments, Mr Takedagawa said, ``we are consulting related agency and lawyers.''

Meanwhile, the company on Tuesday launched its premium sedan Civic in the Indian market, pricing the manual-transmission model at Rs 10.75 lakh and the automatic one at Rs 11.45 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). `

`With the launch of the latest generation `Civic' in India, we are reinforcing our commitment to the market,'' Honda Motor President and CEO, Mr Takeo Fukui, said.

The company said it expected the new Civic model, which comes with a 1.8 litre petrol engine, to further consolidate its position in the Indian market.

``We expect to sell 1,000 Civic cars every month,'' Mr Takedagawa said. According to Honda, car sales in India were expected to grow 50 per cent this fiscal and finish the year at around 62,000 units. ``Of this, around 10,000 would be Civic,'' he said.

The car, to be manufactured at Honda's Greater Noida facility, will have 68 per cent localisation that will be scaled up to 80 per cent within the next two years, the company said.