Mahindra and Mahindra is the leading player in India’s SUV segment. With its exemplary models like  Mahindra Scorpio, Bolero and Xylo that company’s credibility remains unquestioned in the country. M&M is now aiming to acquire stake in Sonalika Group that currently sells SUV model Rhino in India. M&M had been trying to acquire stake in International Car and Motor since 2009 but has not reached any agreement so far with the parent group.

“ICML has a nice, rough-and-ready product which it has not been able to market well enough. M&M feels it can fix any product glitches in that range, scale it up, market and distribute it aggressively to improve sales substantially,” stated a person close to negotiations requesting anonymity to ET.

Mahindra Rhino

When questioned about the possible acquisition M&M chief Pawan Goenka declined to comment but Sonalika Group Chairman LD Mittal confirmed that M&M had indeed expressed interest in its product. However, his son and MD of ICML denied that their company has any plans to sell the product nor there is any concrete proposal from M&M to acquire stake holding of ICML.