Hinduja Group seeks to evaluate acquisition opportunities across automotive, financial services, lubricants and specialty chemicals, energy, and digital solutions, as the conglomerate signals a renewed deal appetite over a tighter set of core businesses, according to a senior executive.
“In the inorganic space, our focus remains on taking strategic bets in sectors that are core to the group,” Amit Saharia, Group President – Strategy said in an interaction with Fe, indicating that future deal-making will be less opportunistic and more tightly linked to building scale and capabilities in identified verticals.
Calibrated Capital Allocation
The focus on core sectors signifies that for a group with a diversified footprint so far, this would be a more calibrated capital allocation strategy to align investments with long-term structural trends such as electrification, energy transition, and AI-led transformation. These sectors currently leads to nearly 75–80% of Hinduja’s overall value, with the group expecting these areas to drive over 80% of growth over the next five years.
The move appears to be reflected in recent deals like that of Hinduja Tech’s acquisitions of Drive System Design and Tecosim Group, Gulf Oil’s stakes in Tirex and Indra, and Hinduja Global Solutions acquiring Teklink.
Beyond deal-making, the groups plans a change towards ecosystem-led growth, where multiple businesses are being integrated to create end-to-end offerings, like that in electric mobility.
EV Ecosystem
The conglomerate is building a full-stack EV platform spanning vehicle manufacturing, charging infrastructure, financing, and mobility services.
“This strategy is reflected is our end-to-end EV ecosystem, in which Ashok Leyland and Switch Mobility manufacture electric vehicles (E-Trucks, E-Buses and E-LCV’s), Gulf Oil provides charging solutions through Tirex (EV Fast Charger Manufacturer) and Indra (EV Slow Charger Manufacturer), Hinduja Renewables supports renewable energy integration through RE for EV solutions and battery energy storage, Hinduja Leyland Finance offers EV specific financing solutions, and OHM Global Mobility delivers e-mobility as a service solutions to fleet operators and state transport undertakings on a pay per kilometer basis,” Saharia said.
Saharia added that such integration is ideated to unlock cross-sector synergies, including shared go-to-market strategies, cross-selling, and selective vertical integration, different from standalone operations to platform-based models.
Additionally, the group plans to orient digital transformation as a group-wide lever rather than a vertical-specific capability. The company is scaling AI, data platforms, and digital tools both to improve efficiency and to build new digital-led businesses, supported by a central Digital Centre of Excellence.
Separately, the group has set a target to jump from around 3 GW currently, which includes commissioned and under construction projects to 10 GW by 2030, with planned investments of $3-4 billion in its renewable energy business over the next 5-6 years. This includes segments like solar, wind, wind-solar hybrid, battery energy storage, and round-the-clock / FDRE (solar + BESS).