The terms of BII’s funding tranche for Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd (MEAL), the Indian automaker’s electric car business, have been modified from Rs 725 crore to Rs 650 crore by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and British International Investment Plc (BII), a branch of the UK government. The investment will be finished by March 31st.
M&M and BII extended the timeline for the final payment in May and agreed to reassess the cash requirement by December 31. The final tranche of BII Group’s investment would be Rs 650 Crores, to be completed by March 31, 2025, according to an exchange filing made by M&M and BII following a joint examination of the finance requirements for MEAL.
With this, BII will now own a share of MEAL ranging from 2.6-4.6% and have invested a total of Rs 1,850 crore in MEAL in two tranches. Previously, it was estimated that MEAL will receive investments totaling about Rs 1,925 crore. According to M&M, the change in finance will not affect MEAL’s overall business plan.
BII invested Rs 1,200 crore in MEAL in the first phase. Apart from BII, Temasek, a Singaporean investment entity, also owns Mahindra’s electric vehicle business. In 2023, Temasek announced that it would spend Rs 1,200 crore in MEAL in order to acquire a 1.5–3% stake in the company.
The Born Electric portfolio is part of M&M’s larger strategy to dominate the EV market. The company has previously predicted that by 2027, 20–30% of automobiles would be electric. At the start of current fiscal year, the M&M board also approved an investment of Rs 12,000 crore for the following three years in its electric company MEAL.
