Slowdown fast-tracked Mahindra buyout spree

The $11-billion Mahindra Group has snapped up as many as 27 assets -- varying from software to automobiles to aviation -- during the last three years, taking advantage of the global economic downturn, but feels that with the global recovery gaining momentum, the company may go slow.

"In the past three years, we did 27 transactions...We are a very conservative Group and we could close so many transactions because of the slowdown when valuations were low," Mahindra Group Senior General Manager for mergers and acquisitions Vijay Paradkar told PTI.

However, he added, "in the next two-three years if the going is good, there will be only a fewer of such deals."

The tractor-to-software Group led by Anand Mahindra has a very conservative approach on inorganic growth, he said.

"We prefer to buy when others are selling and when others start buying, we will be quiet."

Among the companies acquired during the period are scandal-hit Satyam Computer, loss-making South Korean premium SUV maker Ssangyong, two-wheeler maker Kinetic Motors and the Australian aviation firms Gippsland Aeronautics and Aerostaff Australia, through which the Group entered aviation.

Of the 27 assets acquired, around 65 per cent are outside the country, while the rest are domestic, Paradkar said, choosing to answer a question on the future deals with a diplomatic "we are always looking for opportunities."

However, Paradkar declined to divulge the total outgo on these 27 deals.