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16 | THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

CHENNAIBUSINESS

fter a festive month that gave wind-fall to almost every automaker inthe country, the sale of passengervehicles in November exhibited amixed trend.

The growth momentum failed tosustain in November as only dom-inant players registered rise in sales,mainly due to new product intro-ductions. November sales of allcompanies were lower than Octo-ber, which was a festive seasonmonth.

Top three automakers – Maruti,Hyundai and Mahindra & Mahindra– reported a surge in their saleswhen compared with November2014, fuelled by the demand fortheir new models. Ford also saw sig-nificant rise in domestic sales. How-

ever, Honda, Tata Mo-tors and Toyota,among others wit-nessed fall in theirsales when comparedwith the same periodthe previous year.

For Maruti, majorgrowth came fromcompact models in-cluding the new pre-mium compact model

Baleno. This segment reportedabout 20 per cent growth at 44,626units. Its Dzire Tour sales rose by 69per cent to 3,363 units. Ciaz volumesgrew five per cent, while entry seg-ment fell five per cent at 35,981 units.

Hyundai’s Rakesh Srivastava, Se-nior VP (Sales and Marketing) attri-buted company’s growth in sales tostrong demand for its product port-folio led by the Creta, i20 and Grandi10 “We have been buoyed by ournew product launches such as theTUV300 as well as growth momen-tum of existing products like theBolero, Scorpio and XUV500,” saidPravin Shah, President & Chief Ex-ecutive (Automotive), M&M Ltd.Ford’s new products helped thecompany to clock higher sales.

Meanwhile, it was a disappoint-ing month for Honda Cars India,which had a successful run for sev-eral months, aided by new products,and Toyota. For Honda, only Amazereported rise in sales, while the newJazz also clocked good volumes.City, Brio and Mobilio reported de-cline in sales. Tata Motors, which isgearing up to launch its new hatch-back Zica, reported a decline of 13per cent at 10,517 units. Toyota said

its Etios series and new Camry re-corded positive growth, amid over-all sales decline for the month.

Meanwhile, unprecedented rains

in Chennai have impacted car salesresulting in delayed delivery of ve-hicles. Chennai houses factories ofHyundai, Ford and Renault-Nissan.

Auto sales growth slows in Nov.Growth momentum failed to sustain as only a few saw rise in volumes

AG. BALACHANDAR

PASSENGERVEHICLES

Monthly show

MUMBAI: Cox & Kings Group,through its subsidiary Holi-daybreak plc., has announcedthe sale of its 100 per centstake in Explore WorldwideLtd. to Hotelplan U.K. Groupfor 25.8 million pounds (ap-proximately Rs.258 crore) as a part of the travel and holi-day group’s strategy to con-centrate on three specificareas.

Explore Worldwide, whichincludes the brands Explore,the soft adventure tour firmand RegalDive the diving ad-venture firm, generated netrevenues of 11.2 millionpounds (Rs.112 crore) andEBITDA of 2.3 million pounds(Rs.23 crore) in financial year2014-15.

“The sale of this businesshelps us to further increasefocus on our three key verti-cals namely Leisure, Educa-tion and hybrid hotels (Mein-inger),” Peter Kerkar,Director, Cox & Kings Ltd.said in a filing on the BSE.

Cox & Kings has been res-tructuring its businessthrough divestments andacquisitions.

In June this year, Cox &Kings had sold its subsidiary’sCamping Division to HomairVacances, a group that spe-

cialises in outdoor holidaysand is a major player in Francefor Rs.892 crore. Cox & Kingshad acquired the Camping Di-vision as part of its acquisi-tion of Holidaybreak in 2011.

In October this year, Cox &Kings Group had acquiredLate Rooms Ltd. (U.K.), aleading online hotel bookingspecialist in the U.K., for 8.5million pounds (Rs.85 crore).

Cox & Kings, the leadingholidays and education travelgroup has operations in 26countries across continents.

Cox & Kings sells Explore Worldwideto Hotelplan U.K. for Rs.258 croreLALATENDU MISHRA This is the part

of the group’sstrategy toconcentrate on 3 specific areas

BENGALURU: City-based MantisTechnologies, which runs theonline bus ticket booking ser-vices portal Travelyaari, is inadvanced stages of closing afresh round of funding.

Travelyaari has struck adeal with a foreign VentureCapital fund along with its ex-isting investor Bennett, Cole-man and Company Ltd. toraise about Rs.50 crore, ac-cording to sources. “The dis-cussions are in advance stagesand will be closed thismonth,” said a person with di-rect knowledge of the deal.

When contacted, AurvindLama, co-founder of Trav-elyaari, acknowledged thatthe company was in advanceddiscussions to raise funds.However, he declined toname the investor and otherdetails. Till date, Travelyaarihas raised about Rs.20 crorefrom various investors likeBennett & Coleman andCompany Ltd. and GujaratVenture Financial.

It also received fundingfrom the Centre of Innova-tion, Incubation and Entre-preneurship of IIM Ahmeda-bad (IIM-A). Gujarat VentureFinancial is the majoritystakeholder in the companywhile BCCL is a minoritystakeholder. The companywas founded by two IIM-Agraduates Aurvind Lama andPartha Sinha in 2007 andstarted commercial operationin 2008.

As per industry estimates,bus ticketing market in Indiais around Rs.60,000 crore,which includes both privateand government-owned com-panies. Of the total ticket op-portunity, only 10 per cent isdone online and it is growingat 20 per cent annually.

The company will use thefresh funds to strengthen itspresence in South India andcompete with players likeredBus.in, Paytm and Abhi-bus.com. Apart from provid-ing online ticketing facility,Mantis Technologies alsoprovides technology plat-forms for bus operators forticket bookings. The compa-ny has tied up with Punjaband Himachal Pradesh Statetransport companies to pro-vide platforms for online tick-et reservation.

Travelyaari mayclose Rs.50 croredeal this monthPRADEESH CHANDRAN

KOLKATA: The Kolkata PortTrust may implement a tech-nology that will help it saveRs.250 crore annuallythrough reduced dredgingcosts, Union Minister forRoad Transport, Highwaysand Shipping Nitin Gadkarisaid.

Dredging costs at the coun-try’s only riverine port is like-ly to get reduced from aroundRs.400 crore to around Rs.150crore due to a new process ofdredging suggested by theIIT-Madras on the basis ofrecommendations made bythe Boston Consulting Group.The two port systems ofKoPT at Kolkata and Haldiahave a draft of around 7.5metres.

Boston Consulting, on thebasis of a Ministry mandate,had made 120 recommenda-tions on improving the per-formance of all the major In-dian ports. “About 20suggestions are being imple-mented and the rest would beput in place in two years,” MrGadkari said adding that it isnot possible to improve ex-ports without good ports.

“For this government, wa-terways had the highest prior-

ity in the logistics segmentfollowed by railways androadways.” Against the previ-ous government’s pace of lay-ing two km of roads daily, now18 km of roadways were beinglaid, he said. The target is to

increase it to 30 km a day byMarch 2016. The Minister al-so said that within five years,50 lakh jobs are expected to begenerated by the transportsector, which would contrib-ute two per cent to the GDP.

Within five years, 50 lakh jobs are expected to be generated bythe transport sector, which would have a two per cent additionto GDP, says Nitin Gadkari. Union Minister of Road Transport,Highways and Shipping. R.P.S.Kahlon, Chairman, Kolkata PortTrust, is also seen. — PHOTO: PTI

IIT Madras helps KoPT to slashdredging costs by Rs.250 croreSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: German auto majorVolkswagen said it will recall 3.23lakh vehicles in India after agovernment-ordered probefound that the company’s carsfitted with EA 189 diesel engineused a ‘defeat device’ to cheatemission tests. The recall, thatwill affect 323,700 cars fromVolkswagen, Skoda and Audibrands, follows a meeting ofcompany executiveswith officials ofDepartment of HeavyIndustries after thesubmission of reportby the AutomotiveResearch Associationof India.

“VolkswagenGroup India haspresented itsobservations, findings andoutlines of possible solutions onthe EA 189 diesel engines to theGovernment of India — Ministryof Heavy Industries and ARAI .The recall will encompass carsfrom the Volkswagen, Audi andSKODA model range which carrythe software that requires to beupdated,” according to astatement issued by theassociation.

As per the company, from 2008till end of November 2015,approximately 198,500 cars fromVolkswagen, 88,700 cars fromŠKODA and 36,500 cars from

Audi across various models thatwere sold in India have beenequipped with the EA 189engines which include 1.2-litre,1.5-litre, 1.6-litre and 2.0-litrediesel engines. The VolkswagenGroup India will first present asolution to Ministry of HeavyIndustries and ARAI andnecessary actions would be takenin a phased manner, according tothe statement.

“The existing installedsoftware does notaffect the handling,technical safety orroad worthiness ofthe cars.” All theowners of vehicleswith EA 189 engineswill be informed byVolkswagen GroupIndia and theproblem would be

corrected free of cost to thecustomers,.

Government last month issueda notice to Volkswagen aftertesting agency ARAI found“significant variations” in on-road emission levels in theautomaker's diesel models ofJetta, Octavia, Audi A4 and AudiA6 in India.

Volkswagen India sells Jettamodel, while Octavia and AudiA4 and A6 models are retailed bySkoda and Audi, respectively.

Both Audi and Skoda brandsare owned by the Volkswagengroup.

Volkswagen to recall 3.23 lakh units in IndiaYUTHIKA BHARGAVA