M&M, Ford India untangle holdings

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Ford India have formally ended the alliance the two companies entered into to ease Ford India''s entry into the Indian market.

Earlier when M&M initiated the Scorpio project it pared it''s holding in Ford India from 50 percent to 15.88 per cent, as it required funds for the project. Ford on its part had an equity stake of approximately 5.15 per cent in M&M.

Now M&M has confirmed that it has sold its holding in Ford India for an undisclosed amount.

Ford Motor Company (FMC) has sold 59,76,456 shares of M&M at Rs478.55 per share. Of this, 55,00,000 shares amounting to 4.74 per cent equity stake in the Mahindra flagship for Rs263.20 crore were bought by Aranda Investments (Mauritius) Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings.

This coincides with M&M entering into a joint venture Renault of France for the manufacture of the ''C'' segment car Logan. M&M''s senior management has maintained at press briefings that there is no plan for Renault to take an equity stake in the company as Ford did.

Ford India is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company.