CM YK CH-CH 16 | THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015 CHENNAI BUSINESS fter a festive month that gave wind- fall to almost every automaker in the country, the sale of passenger vehicles in November exhibited a mixed trend. The growth momentum failed to sustain in November as only dom- inant players registered rise in sales, mainly due to new product intro- ductions. November sales of all companies were lower than Octo- ber, which was a festive season month. Top three automakers – Maruti, Hyundai and Mahindra & Mahindra – reported a surge in their sales when compared with November 2014, fuelled by the demand for their 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 their sales when compared with the same period the previous year. For Maruti, major growth came from compact models in- cluding the new pre- mium compact model Baleno. This segment reported about 20 per cent growth at 44,626 units. Its Dzire Tour sales rose by 69 per cent to 3,363 units. Ciaz volumes grew 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 to strong demand for its product port- folio led by the Creta, i20 and Grand i10 “We have been buoyed by our new product launches such as the TUV300 as well as growth momen- tum of existing products like the Bolero, Scorpio and XUV500,” said Pravin Shah, President & Chief Ex- ecutive (Automotive), M&M Ltd. Ford’s new products helped the company 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 Amaze reported rise in sales, while the new Jazz also clocked good volumes. City, Brio and Mobilio reported de- cline in sales. Tata Motors, which is gearing up to launch its new hatch- back Zica, reported a decline of 13 per 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 sales resulting in delayed delivery of ve- hicles. Chennai houses factories of Hyundai, Ford and Renault-Nissan. Auto sales growth slows in Nov. Growth momentum failed to sustain as only a few saw rise in volumes A G. BALACHANDAR PASSENGER VEHICLES Monthly show MUMBAI: Cox & Kings Group, through its subsidiary Holi- daybreak plc., has announced the sale of its 100 per cent stake in Explore Worldwide Ltd. to Hotelplan U.K. Group for 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 specific areas. Explore Worldwide, which includes the brands Explore, the soft adventure tour firm and RegalDive the diving ad- venture firm, generated net revenues of 11.2 million pounds (Rs.112 crore) and EBITDA of 2.3 million pounds (Rs.23 crore) in financial year 2014-15. “The sale of this business helps us to further increase focus 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 business through divestments and acquisitions. In June this year, Cox & Kings had sold its subsidiary’s Camping Division to Homair Vacances, a group that spe- cialises in outdoor holidays and is a major player in France for Rs.892 crore. Cox & Kings had acquired the Camping Di- vision as part of its acquisi- tion of Holidaybreak in 2011. In October this year, Cox & Kings Group had acquired Late Rooms Ltd. (U.K.), a leading online hotel booking specialist in the U.K., for 8.5 million pounds (Rs.85 crore). Cox & Kings, the leading holidays and education travel group has operations in 26 countries across continents. Cox & Kings sells Explore Worldwide to Hotelplan U.K. for Rs.258 crore LALATENDU MISHRA This is the part of the group’s strategy to concentrate on 3 specific areas BENGALURU: City-based Mantis Technologies, which runs the online bus ticket booking ser- vices portal Travelyaari, is in advanced stages of closing a fresh round of funding. Travelyaari has struck a deal with a foreign Venture Capital fund along with its ex- isting investor Bennett, Cole- man and Company Ltd. to raise about Rs.50 crore, ac- cording to sources. “The dis- cussions are in advance stages and will be closed this month,” said a person with di- rect knowledge of the deal. When contacted, Aurvind Lama, co-founder of Trav- elyaari, acknowledged that the company was in advanced discussions to raise funds. However, he declined to name the investor and other details. Till date, Travelyaari has raised about Rs.20 crore from various investors like Bennett & Coleman and Company Ltd. and Gujarat Venture Financial. It also received funding from the Centre of Innova- tion, Incubation and Entre- preneurship of IIM Ahmeda- bad (IIM-A). Gujarat Venture Financial is the majority stakeholder in the company while BCCL is a minority stakeholder. The company was founded by two IIM-A graduates Aurvind Lama and Partha Sinha in 2007 and started commercial operation in 2008. As per industry estimates, bus ticketing market in India is around Rs.60,000 crore, which includes both private and government-owned com- panies. Of the total ticket op- portunity, only 10 per cent is done online and it is growing at 20 per cent annually. The company will use the fresh funds to strengthen its presence in South India and compete with players like redBus.in, Paytm and Abhi- bus.com. Apart from provid- ing online ticketing facility, Mantis Technologies also provides technology plat- forms for bus operators for ticket bookings. The compa- ny has tied up with Punjab and Himachal Pradesh State transport companies to pro- vide platforms for online tick- et reservation. Travelyaari may close Rs.50 crore deal this month PRADEESH CHANDRAN KOLKATA: The Kolkata Port Trust may implement a tech- nology that will help it save Rs.250 crore annually through reduced dredging costs, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said. Dredging costs at the coun- try’s only riverine port is like- ly to get reduced from around Rs.400 crore to around Rs.150 crore due to a new process of dredging suggested by the IIT-Madras on the basis of recommendations made by the Boston Consulting Group. The two port systems of KoPT at Kolkata and Haldia have a draft of around 7.5 metres. Boston Consulting, on the basis of a Ministry mandate, had made 120 recommenda- tions on improving the per- formance of all the major In- dian ports. “About 20 suggestions are being imple- mented and the rest would be put in place in two years,” Mr Gadkari said adding that it is not possible to improve ex- ports without good ports. “For this government, wa- terways had the highest prior- ity in the logistics segment followed by railways and roadways.” Against the previ- ous government’s pace of lay- ing two km of roads daily, now 18 km of roadways were being laid, he said. The target is to increase it to 30 km a day by March 2016. The Minister al- so said that within five years, 50 lakh jobs are expected to be generated by the transport sector, which would contrib- ute two per cent to the GDP. Within five years, 50 lakh jobs are expected to be generated by the transport sector, which would have a two per cent addition to GDP, says Nitin Gadkari. Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping. R.P.S.Kahlon, Chairman, Kolkata Port Trust, is also seen. — PHOTO: PTI IIT Madras helps KoPT to slash dredging costs by Rs.250 crore SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: German auto major Volkswagen said it will recall 3.23 lakh vehicles in India after a government-ordered probe found that the company’s cars fitted with EA 189 diesel engine used a ‘defeat device’ to cheat emission tests. The recall, that will affect 323,700 cars from Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi brands, follows a meeting of company executives with officials of Department of Heavy Industries after the submission of report by the Automotive Research Association of India. “Volkswagen Group India has presented its observations, findings and outlines of possible solutions on the EA 189 diesel engines to the Government of India — Ministry of Heavy Industries and ARAI . The recall will encompass cars from the Volkswagen, Audi and SKODA model range which carry the software that requires to be updated,” according to a statement issued by the association. As per the company, from 2008 till end of November 2015, approximately 198,500 cars from Volkswagen, 88,700 cars from ŠKODA and 36,500 cars from Audi across various models that were sold in India have been equipped with the EA 189 engines which include 1.2-litre, 1.5-litre, 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre diesel engines. The Volkswagen Group India will first present a solution to Ministry of Heavy Industries and ARAI and necessary actions would be taken in a phased manner, according to the statement. “The existing installed software does not affect the handling, technical safety or road worthiness of the cars.” All the owners of vehicles with EA 189 engines will be informed by Volkswagen Group India and the problem would be corrected free of cost to the customers,. Government last month issued a notice to Volkswagen after testing agency ARAI found “significant variations” in on- road emission levels in the automaker's diesel models of Jetta, Octavia, Audi A4 and Audi A6 in India. Volkswagen India sells Jetta model, while Octavia and Audi A4 and A6 models are retailed by Skoda and Audi, respectively. Both Audi and Skoda brands are owned by the Volkswagen group. Volkswagen to recall 3.23 lakh units in India YUTHIKA BHARGAVA