Indian investors led by JSW pick up 51% stake in Chinese auto major SAIC’s India unit MG Motor

Chinese auto major SAIC Motor has divested a 51% stake in its subsidiary MG Motor India to Indian investors led by the steel to paints conglomerate JSW Group.

Chinese auto major SAIC Motor has divested a 51% stake in its subsidiary MG Motor India to Indian investors led by the steel to paints conglomerate JSW Group.

JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal on Wednesday announced the joint venture with SAIC making the group’s entry into the automobile space.

The JV company is known as JSW MG Motor India Private Ltd. and JSW group has picked up a 35% stake. Other investors include Indian financial institutions with 8% stake, the employees of MG India with 5% and MG India’s dealers with a 3% stake.

Rajeev Chaba, CEO Emeritus, MG Motor India said that the investors will put in more than ₹5,000 crore into the company and the capital will be deployed for capacity expansion from 1 lakh units per annum to 3 lakh units among others.

Sajjan Jindal, Chairman, JSW Group said making cars was his childhood passion. “I built my first car when I was 12 and was going around the factory. The idea of making cars in India remained in my head and when we learnt that MG India is looking for a partner we grabbed it.”

He said since the company wanted to make New Energy Vehicles (NEV) it decided to partner with SAIC, which has the NEV technology and MG which is a 100 years old British brand.

Stating that the JSW would disrupt the Indian automotive sector, Mr. Jindal said that the JSW MG joint venture will come out with a new car every 3 to 6 months.