Mahindra Looking to Buy Out Pininfarina

Mahindra and Mahindra has been recently very aggressive with acquisitions. After buying out Ssangyong, Maini and 51% stake in Peugeot, the Indian auto giant is now looking to take over the troubled design house- Pininfarina.

Here is a bit of history about the Italian design house. Pininfarina was founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista “Pinin” Farina. After World War 2, a number of automotive manufacturers were interested in working with Pininfarina, whose highly innovative Cisitalia 202 design had attracted wide attention. When Pininfarina joined hands with Nash Motors, it resulted in high volume production of Pininfarina designs and provided a major entry into the United States market.

Now, according to a report on Bloomberg, Mahindra & Mahindra is apparently been negotiating with Pininfarina for several weeks about a potential takeover, but people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg the deal could still fail to work out. A Pininfarina spokesman said their company has a good relationship with Mahindra, but refused to say anything about the possible transaction while a Mahindra representative declared they don’t comment on media speculations.

The main reason for trouble at Pininfarina has been due to the huge losses in 10 of the past 11 years. But recently, their shares went up by 10% and increased the company’s value to €136 million.

Last year, rumors also suggested that Mahindra was interested in buying SAAB. If the deal with Pininfarina works out, we could finally see Mahindra SUV’s designed by the Italian auto design house. What do you think of this ? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.