Hyundai Motor India’s attention-grabbing IPO

Shifting attention away from US and EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and the exploits of Tesla’s Elon Musk at least for a moment, the Indian subsidiary of Hyundai Motor is preparing for an initial public offering on the stock market in Mumbai.

Hyundai is the second most popular passenger car brand in India after Maruti Suzuki. Together with its affiliate Kia, the South Korean automaker has more than 20% of the market, ahead of third and fourth ranking Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra. It is worth noting that not one of the top auto brands in India is Chinese, although ninth-ranked MG is owned by China’s SAIC.

By the end of this year, if the Securities and Exchange Board of India approves, Hyundai Motor India will be the first auto company in India to go public since Maruti Suzuki in 2003. Hyundai Motor reportedly hopes to sell up to 17.5% of its wholly-owned subsidiary for as much as $3 billion in what seems likely to be India’s largest-ever IPO. No new shares will be issued. The lead managers are foreign investment banks Citigroup, HSBC, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley, and India’s Kotak Mahindra.

Sources: Statista data, Asia Times chart

Founded in 1996, Hyundai Motor India is also the country’s second largest auto manufacturer and a leading exporter. It operates two manufacturing plants near Chennai, capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, and another that it acquired from GM last January in the city of Talegaon, east of Mumbai in Maharashtra state.

At the time, Hyundai announced plans to invest another $4 billion in India (on top of about $5 billion invested already) to expand production to one million units per year. Building an electric vehicle business, including battery pack assembly and charging