Pininfarina eyes growth from railways, realty, infra in India

Mahindra group-owned automotive design firm Pininfarina is eyeing opportunities in sectors like railways, real estate and infrastructure development in India to strengthen the non-automotive business.
The Turin-based company generates majority of its revenues from the automotive sector.
"We want to have balanced revenues between automotive and non automotive verticals," Pininfarina CEO Silvio Pietro Angori told PTI at the Geneva Motor Show.
The company needs to lookout for verticals where there is highest opportunity for growth and wherever it can make a difference, he said.
"We don't want to be me too company. We don't want to go to verticals where we can't make a difference," Angori said.

In India, the company is looking at sectors like infrastructure development, transportation and real estate via its architecture arm which currently accounts for just 5 per cent if its revenues globally.

"We see one of the verticals expanding in India, transportation business, the railways business. Infrastructure work in India is one of the targets we have. Also real estate including private housing," Angori said.
He further said: "Transportation, private housing, railways in general terms these are the domains in which we see the largest opportunities."
When asked about the kind of services the company would like to offer in India, Angori said: "Imagine metro stations, buildings and skyscrapers."

The company' architectural division has designed residential houses, government buildings at various locations in the US, Brazil, Hong Kong and Singapore, he added.
"We have done Istanbul airport tower control. We do that kind of stuff. India needs infrastructure and therefore we are looking into that segment," Angori said.
On the automotive business, he said the company's focus is on sustainable mobility domain -- electric and hybrid vehicles.
"Today 75 per cent of the projects we have are in sustainable mobility domain...we have around dozen of different projects in the segment currently," Angori said.
In 2015, Mahindra group had announced to acquire Pininfarina for an overall outgo of over 50 million after months of negotiations.

Tech Mahindra owns around 76 per cent stake in Pininfarina.