Maruti Suzuki lines up `5,000 cr capex for FY23

NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has lined up Rs 5,000 crore capex for various initiatives, including new product launches, for the current financial year, according to a senior company official.

The country’s top carmaker, which had earmarked around Rs 4,500 crore in FY22, also believes that parent Suzuki Motor Corp’s investment in Gujarat would help in expanding its battery electric vehicles (BEV) range in the country.

“Capex of Rs 5,000 crore is something that we’ve committed for this fiscal on various projects, including, the new model launches etc,” MSI CFO Ajay Seth said in an analyst call.

The maker of Alto and Swift noted that it would manage the capex through internal accruals, he added. Responding to a query on Suzuki’s plans to invest in Gujarat for local manufacturing of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and BEV batteries, Seth said: “This investment will greatly support in localising the EV manufacturing and help the company to accelerate and expand its BEV product portfolio in India.”

The company is planning to introduce its first BEV by 2025.

In March, Suzuki Motor Corporation announced to invest around 150 billion yen (about Rs 10,445 crore) by 2026, for local manufacturing of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and BEV batteries in Gujarat.

On a query regarding the ongoing semiconductor shortage and its impact on the company, Seth noted that the supply situation of electronic components continues to be unpredictable.

“It might have some impact on the production volumes for FY 2022-23 as well,” he added.

MSI currently has a backlog of over 3.2 lakh units due to production issues following acute shortage of chips.

“Generally chips will continue to be a challenge in this year also and of course we’ll try to maximise our numbers,” MSI Executive Director Corporate Affairs Rahul Bharti said.

On a query regarding hybrids, he noted that the technology is very powerful which can work in conjunction with EVS to help reduce carbon and oil import.“they do about 30-40 per cent of the job of an EV and are many times more scalable. It would be an interesting option and we’ll be looking forward to such technologies in the future,” Bharti said. He noted that the company would like to regain over 50 per cent market share in the domestic passenger vehicle segment.

He noted that the company’s market share in the nonSUV segment is over 65 per cent. “In every segment other than SUV our market share has gone up. Whenever we launch SUVS, of course, the market share has to improve,” Bharti said.

GURUGRAM: POWERGRID Infrastructure Investment Trust (‘PGINVIT’), India’s first Infrastructure Investment Trust by a Maharatna CPSE, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID), completed one year of listing, on May 14, 2022, with excellent performance.

PGINVIT units have given a capital return of 37 per cent to its unitholders on the Offer Price of Rs 100, during the period outperforming the benchmark indices on the bourses.

Total returns to unitholders is about 45 per cent including an aggregate distribution of Rs 7.50 per unit paid by PGINVIT since listing. PGINVIT came out with its Initial Public Offer in April 2021.

The issue received overwhelming response of the investors and was oversubscribed 4.83 times, despite being launched in the midst of very difficult pandemic and volatile market conditions.

Pursuant to the approval by the Union Cabinet in September 2020, POWERGRID, through PGINVIT, monetized five of its SPVS that it had acquired under Tariff Based Competitive Bidding mechanism of Govt. of India.

The National Monetisation Pipeline of Govt. of India envisages monetization of about Rs.45,200 crore by POWERGRID during FY2022-25.

BEIJING: The International Monetary Fund said on Saturday it has increased the weighting of the dollar and Chinese yuan in its review of the currencies that make up the valuation of its Special Drawing Rights.

The review is the first since the yuan, also known as the renminbi, joined the basket of currencies in 2016 in what was a milestone in Beijing’s efforts to internationalise its currency.

The IMF raised the US dollar’s weighting to 43.38 per cent from 41.73 per cent and the yuan to 12.28 per cent from 10.92 per cent. The euro’s weighting declined to 29.31 per cent from 30.93 per cent, the yen’s fell to 7.59 per cent from 8.33 per cent and the British pound fell to 7.44 per cent from 8.09 per cent, Reuters reported.

The IMF said in a statement its executive board had determined the weighting based on trade and financial market developments from 2017 to 2021. “Directors concurred that neither the Covid pandemic nor advances in Fintech have had any major impact on the relative role of currencies in the SDR basket so far,” the IMF said.

Although the yuan’s value has declined recently, it has risen roughly 2 per cent against the dollar since 2016, and appreciated about 6 per cent against its major trading partners.

In a statement on Sunday, the People’s Bank of China said China will continue to promote the reform and opening of its financial market.