Maruti earmarks Rs 1,000 cr to buy land parcels this fiscal

Country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has earmarked Rs 1,000 crore in the current fiscal to buy land parcels for new dealerships.
As part of its network expansion strategy, the company plans to buy land parcels, build dealerships and then lease them to selected dealers.
MSI has already finalised 120 such land deals across the country in the first half of the current financial year.
"We have earmarked a budget of Rs 1,000 crore for the current fiscal. We plan to have around 1,500 new dealerships over the next three years," MSI Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ajay Seth told PTI.

The trigger for the land purchase is increasing prices across the country, especially in high-potential belts, which impacted profitability of dealerships, he said.
The company currently has the biggest sales network across the country which includes 2,069 dealerships in 1,700 cities.

It also sells its premium models from 280 premium retail chain Nexa. It also runs a network of around 3,293 service centres across the country.
MSI's bid to enhance sales network comes at time when it has set a target to sell 20 lakh units per annum by 2020. The company sold over 15 lakh units during the last fiscal.

The company is flush with funds and at the end of first half of the current fiscal, MSI had a cash reserve of around Rs 31,000 crore.