German commercial vehicles major Daimler is open to equity partners for its forthcoming Rs 4,400-crore Chennai manufacturing project. The German major, which originally decided to promote this project through a joint venture collaboration with Munjals of the Hero Group, is now open to multiple partners instead of sticking to one company or partner, said Marc Llistosella, chief executive officer, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Private Ltd (DICV).
Daimler which originally entered into an agreement with Munjals in April 2008 to set up this Chennai plant as joint venture project, now has to go ahead with the project on its own as the latter had to pull out of the JV in a year?s time for reasons such as the global financial meltdown, he said.
In response to queries whether Daimler will relook at roping in a new partner as an equity shareholder, Llistosella said, ?We will certainly look at this option but we don?t restrict ourselves to a single partner now rather we would like to have multiple partners. Things have changed dramatically now and there is no single partner in India who can meet all our requirements.? To a specific question whether Nissan would join in, he said, ?I have no idea. It is upto them to decide whether join us here or not.?