Mahindra links with Italian firm for underwater systems

New Delhi: The Tata and the Mahindra groups have each entered into new joint ventures with foreign companies at the ongoing DefExpo here on Monday.

Addressing a press conference, the Vice-President and Managing Director, Mahindra Group, Mr Anand Mahindra, announced that the group was in an advanced stage of discussion with Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei (WASS), the maritime underwater system subsidiary of the Italian group Finmeccanica, to form a strategic alliance.

The setting up of the joint venture will help the Mahindra Group become a full service provider to defence services, Mr Mahindra said. Mahindra initially plans to invest around Rs 50 crore in the project and will scale up its investment at a later date, Mr Mahindra said.

The underwater production facility is currently situated at Pune but may be shifted to Visakhapatnam, he added.

Biz opportunity;


“There will be an opportunity for $500-million worth underwater defence business in India and we want to get a large share of that. Besides, the total market for land systems is worth around $5 billion and we hope to have a market share of around $3 billion,” Mr Mahindra said.

The company recently set up a special vehicle production facility at Faridabad near Delhi. Speaking to newspersons, the Executive Vice-President of the Finmeccanica group, Mr Filippo Bagnato, said that the new joint venture would be operational in the next few days.

“We will be bring in know-how as equity to the project. As per the law we will be holding a 26 per cent equity in the project,” Mr Bagnato said.

Thales pact;


Meanwhile, Tata Power’s Strategic Electronic Division (SED) and Thales also announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will see both the companies cooperate to offer optronic solutions for the domestic defence market, including the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) programme.