Mahindra family to sell ‘small’ portion of stake in automaker

The family of the founder of Indian car and tractor maker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. will sell a “small" number of shares in the company for liquidity purposes.

The stake will be sold by Prudential Management and Services Pvt., the entity that holds the family’s stake, Mahindra said in an exchange filing Thursday. The liquidity is for “specific needs," the filing said, without giving further details.

The family will retain the status of promoter group of Mahindra & Mahindra and has “no intention to sell further shares in the foreseeable future," it said.

Prudential owned 141.5 million shares, or an 11.38% stake, in the automaker before the filing was lodged, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Mahindra & Mahindra stock fell as much as 4.4% in Mumbai trading Thursday as more than 15 million shares changed hands. Prudential was seeking to sell as many as 9.3 million shares, or a 0.8% stake, Bloomberg news reported earlier.

Prudential’s shares were previously held by Keshub Mahindra, who headed the company for almost 49 years until 2012, and died last year. The stake was then transferred to his family members. His nephew, billionaire Anand Mahindra, is now chairman of the company.

Mahindra is in a strategic pivot to electrified transport. It’s planning to source electric vehicle parts and battery cells from Volkswagen AG for five sport utility vehicles launching in December. Its electric vehicle business has attracted investments from Singapore’s Temasek and British International Investments Plc, while the carmaker is building a $1.2 billion EV plant in western India.