 "Mahindra Group buys Italian auto designer Pininfarina")
Tech Mahindra Limited, along with Mahindra & Mahindra, has acquired iconic Italian automotive and industrial design company Pininfarina SpA. Legendary brand status of Pininfarina’s will allow Tech Mahindra powerful access to relationships the iconic designer has nurtured with the best in the world over its 85-year history, including with Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Peugeot. This will mean an opportunity for Tech Mahindra to influence product conceptualisation and design & styling through Europe's best-in-class design house.
As part of the agreement, Tech Mahindra and M&M will purchase 76.06 percent of Pininfarina shares from the current controlling shareholder Pincar Srl at a price of Euro 1.1 per share. This investment will be done via a joint venture company (JVCo), in which Tech Mahindra will hold 60 percent stake, while M&M will hold the remaining stake.
This will be followed by an open offer for all the remaining ordinary shares of Pininfarina, at the same purchase price paid for the shares held by Pincar. A rights issue to infuse funds into the design & styling major will also be executed before the end of 2016.
Pininfarina will continue to remain an independent company, listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, with Paolo Pininfarina continuing as the Chairman of its board.
Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, said, “Pininfarina will add enormous value to Tech Mahindra's portfolio of engineering services. But just as important is the fact that the legendary high-end design credentials of Pininfarina will significantly enhance the design capabilities of the entire Mahindra Group. Given the increasing design sensibilities of today’s consumers, product design will greatly influence customer choice and experience, and hence our success.”
Where customer experience determines the future of business, this acquisition will give Tech Mahindra a critical foothold in key, early-stage conversations in the automotive and other verticals. Tech Mahindra will also benefit from the designer's focused presence in Italy and Germany, the hotbeds of European automotive manufacturing, as well as in the US and an emerging automotive market, China.
For Pininfarina, the acquisition will mean an ability to leverage Tech Mahindra's presence across 90 countries and access to about 780 customers. Tech Mahindra's global delivery model will lend Pininfarina a newly heightened scale to its operations.
Tech Mahindra’s well-entrenched integrated engineering solutions (IES) business will complement Pininfarina's range of offerings. It is now equipped to pursue bigger opportunities in the outsourced automotive engineering services industry that totals around $ 10 billion with a CAGR of 8 per cent. The IES offering will be able to compete better with traditional western players, with styling, design and prototyping.
Pininfarina is a styling company best known for its stunning designs of famous car brands - including Ferrari, GM, Peugeot and the Alfa Romeo. Started 85-years ago by founder Battista 'Pinin' Farina, the company is the Italian symbol for jaw-dropping car designs. It has designed almost 1,000 cars across brands over the years.
The company's enduring relationship with Ferrari began when 'Pinin' Farina and Enzo Ferrari met in 1951. Farina designed the first Ferrari, the 212, followed by the tremendously popular 250 GT. Farina's breath-taking designs took Hollywood by storm, too, inspiring the film 'Sabrina' starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart, along with the Spider that Farina designed.
