Hyundai Motor mulls India unit IPO to raise $3 bn

Hyundai Motor India is in the early stages of talks to go public later this year to raise at least $3 billion, Reuters reported on Monday, as Hyundai Motor Group is poised to spend $3.3 billion to expand its manufacturing facilities in India over the coming years.

The Indian unit of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. could be valued at $25 billion-$30 billion for an initial public offering, according to the report. It cited unnamed sources.

The IPO report came after Hyundai acquired General Motor’s Talegaon plant in the western state of Maharashtra in 2023. It plans to use the Talegaon factory as a manufacturing base for production of its India-dedicated EVs.

Last month, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the state of Maharashtra to invest 70 billion Indian rupees ($845 million) to expand and upgrade its Indian car manufacturing plant in Talegaon.

India serves as Hyundai’s Southeast Asian hub. In May last year, it announced a plan to invest 200 billion rupees ($2.45 billion) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu over the next decade.

Hyundai said it would set up a battery pack assembly plant in Chennai and install 100 fast EV charging stations across the southern state over the next five years.

It set up its Indian arm in 1996 and began mass production of the compact hatchback Santro, its first model tailored to India, in 1998.

It operates two plants in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and one in Talegaon, Maharashtra. Its sister company Kia Corp. has a manufacturing base in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh.

Hyundai and Kia have sold about 9 million units in India in aggregate over the past 25 years and control 21.3% of the Indian car market as of the end of June 2023. 

Write to Seok-Cheol Choi at dolsoi@hankyung.com
 


Yeonhee Kim edited this article.