Mumbai - Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), India’s leading automotive major and a diversified global multi-national, today announced that FirstChoice Wheels (the country’s largest chain of multi-brand pre-owned cars), has raised Rs. 80 crore through a private placement and rights issue to unlock value and fuel growth. The funds raised will be used to finance the roll out of FirstChoice’s chain of 300 owned and franchise outlets across the country.
The private placement agreement was inked with Phi Advisors, which is promoted by Mr. Anupam Thareja and Mr. P. Sivaram.
The new After–Market Sector, which was launched recently, is thus looking at augmenting the presence of its pre-owned car multi-brand stores across the country.
The After- Market Sector is a new business vertical, which aims to replicate the new vehicle eco-system in the pre-owned vehicle space.
Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President After-market Sector, M&M, said, “Our vision is to corporatise the pre-owned used car business, which is a pioneering effort by the Mahindra Group. FirstChoice is at the threshold of its next phase of growth and the infusion of funds and a partner like Phi would help transform the company into a truly pan – Indian player, helping us consolidate our leadership in the multi-brand pre-owned car industry.”
Mr. Vinay Sanghi, CEO – FirstChoice Wheels, added, “FirstChoice has gained the first mover advantage as the leading organised player in the pre-owned car market. With an excellent team and systems in place, we are targeting 1,00,000 vehicle sales per annum by 2013. With this funding, we will increase our reach to over 300 outlets. This will include 30 Franchise Super Stores, each of which will have a stock of over 200 cars on display.”
The pre-owned car market which currently stands at 1.5 million cars per year is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years given the increasing disposable incomes of Indian families. The pre-owned car industry is expected to reach a size of 50,000 crore in the next 5 years. This will eventually procreate peripheral businesses to support the pre-owned car industry.
M&M introduced the After-Market sector in April 2008 to capitalize on the business opportunity of selling multi-brand pre-owned cars and to subsequently provide spares and service support through this new sector.
Source:Infibeam.com
Bookmark this post: | 
|
0 comments:
Post a Comment