Monday, January 20th, 2014
SEOUL, KOREA - Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of the Mahindra Group, the largest shareholder of Ssangyong Motors, promised on January 17 that his company would invest up to 1 trillion won in Korea for the next four years to President Park Geun-hye who was on a four-day state visit to India.
He said this in response to the President's request that the Mahindra Group increase its investment in Korea. "Recently Ssangyong Motors has finally entered a stable state after a difficult normalization process. Our group plans to invest 1 trillion won for the next four years in the company focusing on product development and more hiring," the chairman said. "In addition to automobile production, we will expand our business areas in Korea toward agricultural equipment, info-tech, resort development, and so on," he added.
The Mahindra Group took a 69-percent stake in Ssangyong Motors in 2010 at the cost of 507 billion won, followed by an additional investment of 80 billion won last year. The current stake in Ssangyong is 72 percent.
President Park complimented the group for successfully reviving the car maker that was under court receivership and said, "Korea will become the stepping stone for the group in expanding its reach across East Asia."