M&M loses Valtra bid

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd has lost the race to acquire the tractor business of Valtra in Finland and Brazil to US-based Agco, which had bid at euro 600 million.

The M&M board had last month submitted its bid for acquiring the tractor business of Valtra Oy Ab, Finland and Valtra do Brasil Ltd.

M&M executive director and president finance & corporate affairs Bharat Doshi told PTI that the company had bid at a price, which it thought was best value.

"This (Valtra tractor sale) was an opportunity, which came and the company considered it. However, losing out in the race does not change our global strategy," he said.

The company already has a presence in the US and in the European market. M&M would go through their own distribution network or through alliances, he said adding, it would also consider such future opportunities if anything came up.

The acquisition of Kone-owned Valtra would have helped M&M to broaden its product portfolio as the Finnish company makes high-horse power tractors as against M&M, which was mainly focused on production of mid-end tractors.

Valtra's net sales in 2002 was euro 762 million and it had 2,508 employees, including 1,541 in Finland and 710 in Brazil.