New Delhi, May 16: India's largest car maker Maruti Udyog (MUL) is set to embark on an aggressive cost cutting drive and improve operating efficiencies to bring itself at par with auto major Suzuki's manufacturing facility in Kosai, Japan. Outlining its business strategy in the draft prospectus filed with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the forthcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO), it said the company would further expand its sales and service network and increase availability of car finance. The company would also roll out more models and variants to further increase its market share from 54 per cent.

Maruti also plans to offer cars and automobile-related services through "one stop shop".

"We intend to use our extensive sales and service network to make available to our customers a wide range of Maruti-branded services," it said.

While indicating that Maruti's sales were more than the combined sales of its competitors, the draft prospectus pointed out that the company's market share exceeded the combined market share of other car makers by 40 per cent in 2002.

The Maruti plant had been operating at over 100 per cent of its installed capacity for the past five years, it said.

The draft prospectus has been filed to divest 25 per cent of government stake through a public offer in the joint venture in which Suzuki motors of Japan holds 54.2 per cent stake.

Bureau Report