Hyundai Motor India to go public this year: reports

S. Korean automaker’s India subsidiary valued at between $25b and $30b

Hyundai Motor Company's Exter, a compact sports utility vehicle strategically developed to target the auto market in India (Hyundai Motor Group)

Hyundai Motor India, South Korean conglomerate Hyundai Motor Group’s local subsidiary, is planning to float its shares in an initial public offering on the Indian stock market before the end of this year, according to reports Monday.

Citing unnamed sources, The Economic Times reported that a group of global investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Citi, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Bank of America, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and UBS came to Seoul last week to present their IPO proposals to Hyundai Motor’s top management. The report added that the listing will likely be launched between September and November.

Reuters also reported that Hyundai Motor India has entered in early stage talks for an IPO while exploring options to raise at least $3 billion for the listing. Crediting anonymous sources, the report said the IPO could value the automaker at between $25 billion and $30 billion.

A Hyundai Motor Group official in Seoul said nothing can be confirmed about the reports at the moment. Hyundai Motor India did not reply to The Korea Herald’s inquiry about the IPO rumors.

“The work has begun at the headquarters,” The Economic Times reported, quoting one of the sources.

“This is a strategic market and Hyundai wants to deepen the relationship. This, arguably, is the tentpole event for them in India.”

The Korean auto giant established the Indian subsidiary in 1996 and began local production in 1998. The conglomerate’s bigger automaker Hyundai Motor Company operates two manufacturing plants in Chennai and the sister affiliate Kia runs one in Anantapur. Last year, Hyundai acquired General Motors’ auto manufacturing factory in Talegaon to expand its local production to some 900,000 units per year.

India became the third largest market for the combined global sales of the two Korean automakers last year behind the US and South Korea as they sold over 850,000 units. The automakers had some 20 percent market share together to be the second-largest car producer in the country behind Maruti Suzuki with about 40 percent market share.

By Kan Hyeong-woo(hwkan@heraldcorp.com)