With a significant capital infusion of nearly Rs 1000 crore from external investors, Mahindra & Mahindra is poised to take its highly successful Last Mile Mobility Business public in the coming years.
During the Q4 FY24 earnings call, Anish Shah, the MD of Mahindra & Mahindra, outlined the company’s strategic approach to capital markets. He indicated that the recycling arm, Mahindra Accelo will likely be the first to unlock its potential in the capital markets. Following this, the Last Mile Mobility Business is also expected to debut in the capital markets through an IPO, Shah noted, without sharing specific timelines for the same.
In the fiscal year 2023-34, M&M sold over 100,000 vehicles under its last-mile mobility arm. The electric three-wheelers business has grown four times in the last two years, and the company continues to have a substantial market share, claimed Rajesh Jejurikar, ED and CEO, auto and farm business at Mahindra & Mahindra.
“We have aggressive growth plans. So, there is work on the new-gen platforms and new products for the future. All the investment is going into creating capacity and products in the Zaheerabad ecosystem,” assured Jejurikar.
The Last Mile Mobility division sells electric three-wheelers and small mini trucks to cater to the booming e-commerce industry.
On taking questions on the impact of increased competition in the E3W category, Jejurikar said it was in the low double digit growth.
“We believe the category penetration is only 11%. This category has the best chance to electrify because of a very strong customer value proposition. We believe the more players come in, the greater the opportunity to electrify faster. That will impact market share downwards, but we think it will fuel the pace of growth momentum in the category, which is very important,” he noted.
The company said its recently launched Treo metal body three-wheeler has received a very good response.
Jejurikar further noted that the penetration of electric three-wheelers is likely to see an increase of 40-50% in the forseeable future. “Now, when that happens, we expect market share to come down because there is already one new competitor, and we believe that together, we will get growth momentum going. So, we would expect market share to moderate to a reasonable level. But quantum growth in volumes is what we would expect,” he noted.