Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo etc… are you a fan of these automotive brands? Well, I am. So, any news relating to Pininfarina is quite important to me since a lot of cars belonging to niche brands like the ones mentioned are designed at this very Italian design house.
Pininfarina SpA has revealed that India’s Tata group has shown interest in having a stake in the Italian company. It was declared on 27th March, 2008 that Pininfarina would sell shares worth hundred million Euros to existing investors and Vincent Bollore, a French billionaire who is credited with being in the list of world's richest 500 people. Tata group has shown interest towards having a stake in the Turin based outfit as well, but it was unclear as to which business body under the Tata umbrella would be taking part in the share sale.
In the meantime, there’s been a development involving both the above mentioned corporations. Pininfarina signed a letter of intent with Tata Motors wherein the latter would take a minority stake in the company’s design, research and engineering facility at Pune which is expected to become operational by the end of 2008.
Pininfarina is following a well thought about strategy and setting up design and engineering centre in rapidly growing countries like India gives it an advantage due to cost competitiveness that such countries offer since this factor will help the Italian company to bounce back to profitability.
“This agreement witnesses the great attention Pininfatina is dedicating to an emerging and highly developing market such as the Indian one.†Andrea Pininfarina, Chairman and Chief Executive, Pininfarina, was quoted as saying.
This is not the end of it. Pininfarina has been contributing heavily towards the Indian companies since as early as June 2007 when it entered an agreement with Sonalika group wherein the former will provide design services to the Indian firm. Pininfarina has also been working closely with NID (National Institute of Design) since February last year.
