Hinduja Group eyes Africa for business expansion

The group is also planning major expansion plan in its hospitals and healthcare business

Global business conglomerate Hinduja group is planning to expand its presence in Africa in areas ranging from transport, infrastructure and coal.

The UK-based group, run by billionaire Hinduja brothers, is already present across various countries including India in sectors like banking, auto, energy, technology and healthcare and has a turnover of over $25 billion (about Rs 1.4 lakh crore).

"We at Hinduja group are planning significant expansion in African countries. We are trying to create our business hubs in Kenya and in East Africa, in addition to our existing hubs in South Africa, Tanzania and Nigeria in the region," Group's Co-Chairman Gopichand Hinduja told PTI here.

Gopichand and his brother Prakash Hinduja were here to participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting, during which they met government heads and top officials of various African countries and discussed their business plans.

Prakash Hinduja said the group is also looking at expansion in Latin American countries and its expansion plans in India, where it has previously announced investments totalling $30 billion over a five year period, are progressing on track.

The group's Indian units include commercial banking entity IndusInd Bank, lubricants and specialty chemicals firm Gulf Oil and commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland, among others.

"In Africa, there is so much to be done, but for now we are focussing on our existing strengths in various business verticals and therefore focussing on sectors like transport, auto, lubricants, infrastructure and coal. We will focus on partnering the governments of various African countries and look at PPP model of business there," Gopichand Hinduja said.

"We are keen to work on public transport systems in African countries through Ashok Leyland," Prakash Hinduja added.

Besides Ashok Leyland, the group would also look to expand its business in lubricants, IT and other verticals in Africa, he said.

Asked about the renewed wave of economic reform initiatives in India and the reaction of foreign entities to this, Gopichand Hinduja said overseas investors believe that these are welcome steps, but implementation would be the key.

"There is lot of optimism for India, but the investors are currently adopting a wait and watch stance about the implementation," he said.

Prakash Hinduja also said that the group is currently working on a major expansion plan in its hospitals and healthcare business and would look at harnessing India's potential for the same.

"India has great potential to exploit opportunities in the healthcare outsourcing business like clinical trials etc. and the growth in this business could equal that witnessed by the IT sector in the past. Within India, also, there is a great potential to grow healthcare facilities in the country and we would look to partner in this progress," he added.