Minda Industries Ltd (MIL), a leading global manufacturer and supplier of proprietary automotive solutions, has announced that it has entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with FRIWO AG Germany, a leading international manufacturer of innovative power supply units and e-drive solutions, to combine their manufacturing prowess and technical expertise to manufacture and supply various electric vehicle components in Indian subcontinent.
Minda Industries will hold a majority stake of 50.1% in the JV entity. The company expects a surge in two-wheel electric vehicles over the next 5-6 years in India. While the JV plans to incur a capex of around Rs. 390 crores over a period of next 6 years to support such growth in India, the outlay in the initial two years would be around Rs. 160 crores. Minda Industries plans to invest Rs. 71 crores in one or more tranches as equity investment to partly fund the above expenditure. The remaining funding requirement will be met through mix of internal accruals, equity investment and debt.
The Board has also approved investment of Euro 15 million in FRIWO AG via a capital increase in order to strengthen the industrial partnership between the two groups. The planned transaction and the capital measure is subject to the regulatory approvals including Reserve Bank of India.
The JV will combine the manufacturing and technology expertise of UNO Minda and FRIWO’s long-term experience in providing sophisticated e-mobility solutions to manufacture and market e-drive solutions for electrical two-and three wheelers in India. As a result, the combined entity will be able to offer full line e-drive-solutions for the Indian market, combining extremely robust hardware and an outstanding software architecture.
Nirmal K Minda, CMD, UNO Minda Group, said, “Electrification will play an important role in the transformation of the mobility industry and presents major opportunities to entire mobility ecosystem. We are delighted to partner with FRIWO to expand our product capabilities to serve such rising EV opportunities. By combining our technologies and production capabilities, we can create a true leader in the rapidly growing e-vehicles market. Partnership has been forged at opportune time where EV Industry is on the cusp of growth trajectory facilitated by favourable government policy and incentives. We are confident to play a key catalyst role in electric vehicle revolution and sustainable mobility in India.”
Rolf Schwirz, FRIWO CEO, commented, “This joint venture is a great opportunity for FRIWO to facilitate its expertise and innovation driven e-mobility business. The Joint Venture will have a distinct product portfolio with shared facilities, sophisticated, but also market proven technology, high quality and engineering standards from both FRIWO and UNO Minda, at optimized costs to the customers’ benefit. This winning combination will enable the JV to successfully establish a leading position in the two and three-wheeler electric vehicles markets in India, as well as unlock the potential of other markets.”