Hindujas bets big on Africa; eyes $1 bn investment, $2 bn income

Mumbai: Hinduja group has identified Africa as its next big frontier for growth and has committed to pump in USD 1 billion across the sectors over the next five years.

Calling for a unified Africa plan to fast-track development of the continent, the automobile-to-financial services conglomerate plans to expand its business across the African region, especially in automotive, oil, chemicals, trading and infrastructure sectors, Hinduja Group Europe Chairman Prakash Hinduja told Tuesday.

"Africa is the future market for us. A continent of vast size and population, as large as India, is going to be our next frontier. We have significant expansion plans in Africa and will be investing USD 1 billion over the next five years," Hinduja said.

He said the group nets USD 300-400 million from the continent and after this investment "we expect our income to be around USD 2 billion over the next five years."

For mid-term, he said this 'Go Africa' strategy will have the group's flagship Ashok Leyland more than doubling its bus and truck exports to Africa from the present 12,000 units per annum to over 25,000 units over the next three years.

"Ashok Leyland has exported around 12,000 vehicles over the past three years. Exports contribute 15 percent to the turnover and it is set to increase to 33 percent over next three years. A significant part of this growth is expected to come from the Africa," Hinduja said.

On investment, he was quick to add that these investments will be phased in a such manner that is suited to these countries' own development, saying "we will pump in this money across three different time horizons -- short, mid and long-term."

When asked about the whether it will be export led or manufacturing, he said the strategy will be to approach the continent by having anchoring hubs in each of the four geographical zones.

"For instance, our anchor hub in Kenya will serve East Africa; Nigeria, West Africa; North Africa will be served by our Egyptian hub and we would shortly finalise one for South," Hinduja added.

"Different states in Africa are at different stages of political and economic evolution. Mapping these evolutionary trends, our investments in Africa would be staggered".

The England-based group is present across various countries in sectors like auto, infrastructure, banking, energy, technology and healthcare. Its flagship brand Ashok Leyland is the second largest bus and truck maker in the country. 

When asked about his meetings with the different heads of government of African nations, who were in New Delhi last week for the third India-Africa summit, he said he met many heads and top officials and discussed their business plans.

Explaining his plans Hinduja said: "We are focusing on our existing strength in various verticals such as automobiles, infra, oil and chemicals and trading."

When asked whether it will be an export-led strategy he said he doesn't want his automotive business to be seen as another exporter of commercial vehicles and mentioned the successfully run (on PPP model) in bus rapid transit system in Lagos in Nigeria.

As part of this strategy, Ashok Leyland and Gulf Oil will be setting up units in Africa. The group also intends to participate in trading of agri-commodities and also in infrastructure projects, he added.