Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday said it expects minority shareholders voting for approval of plans to let parent Suzuki Motor Corp own the proposed new plant in Gujarat, to happen sometime in October.
“We haven't yet fixed a date. It could be in October probably but not certain yet," Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R.C. Bhargava told reporters.
He was speaking at the sidelines of a lecture in memory of Awanish Dev, a Maruti Suzuki executive who was killed in worker violence at the company's plant in Manesar in 2012.
Meanwhile, asked how confident the management is to get minority shareholder approval, the Managing Director and CEO of country largest car maker, Kenichi Ayukawa, said, “...because of the way we communicated our sincerity to the investors, we did not get any negative response. We are expecting to get better results.”
The company, under pressure from institutional investors over the proposed takeover of its Gujarat plant by parent Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC), had in March tweaked its proposals related to the plant and decided to seek the approval of minority shareholders for the same.
Asked if the company is looking at price hikes, Mr. Bhargava answered in the negative. “At the moment discounts are at all time high in the industry so in this scenario there cannot be price hikes,” he said.
On sales in the upcoming festive season, Mr. Bhargava said, “It should be better this year as compared to last year, which was a disaster. Sentiment has improved, government is going in right direction but I still don't expect that we will see some high sustained growth happening.”
Talking to the reporters, Mr. Ayukawa said MSI will consider bringing its automated manual transmission (AMT) technology being used in the company's Celerio, to other similar models in its portfolio.
