The Hinduja Group, which in the 1980s acquired Gulf Oil and automobile major Ashok Leyland and in the early 1990s started IndusInd Bank as one of India's first new-generation private banks, is now betting big on India's renewable energy, electric mobility, financial services and digital sectors.

Out of the 10 business verticals the Hinduja Group operate, greater emphasis in terms of people, investments, and collective focus is now going to be on these verticals—automotive, financial services, energy, lubricants & speciality chemicals and the digital sector.

"About 70-80% of our value is locked into these four verticals, and the plan is to unlock greater value through the same in line with our Group vision to achieve 3-4 times market cap for these business over the next 4-5 years," Amit Saharia, Group President-Strategy, Hinduja Group, told Fortune India in an exclusive interaction.

Green mobility is going to be a major focus area for the Group, which has a market share of over 30% in commercial vehicles through Ashok Leyland. Switch Mobility, a subsidiary of Ashok Leyland and a global manufacturer of electric buses and light commercial vehicles, has already launched commercial electric vehicles in India and has so far sold around 1,100-plus electric buses and 1,000-plus electric LCVs, now running in cities like Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Lucknow, covering over 100 million green miles. Switch Mobility, originally called Optare, was a UK-based bus builder founded in 1985, and Ashok Leyland bought the company and renamed it Switch Mobility in November 2020.

While Switch Mobility Ltd UK (Switch UK) is closing down its manufacturing facility at Sherburn, the UK, due to less demand in Europe, Switch Mobility Automotive Ltd (Switch India) is setting up a new electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing plant in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, investing over ₹1,000 crore. The plant, with an initial capacity of 2,500 vehicles per year, with plans to expand to 5,000 annually within a decade, is expected to become operational in 2025. Switch Mobility has an order book of over 1,500 e-buses, including for the recently launched double-deckers. Ashok Leyland has invested ₹1,200 crore in Switch Mobility to drive electric vehicles and targets to corner a stable 20% market share, competing with Tata Motors, Olectra Greentech, PMI Electro Mobility, and JBM Auto.

To boost EV mass mobility, the Group has launched OHM Global Mobilit—- a subsidiary of Ashok Leyland, an OPEX-based, pay-per-km, high-tech mobility management solutions company targeting transport corporations that look at light-asset models in mobility. In this model, OHM owns the e-buses and operates for the state transport utilities on a contract and pay-per-km basis. Financing is also arranged through Group NBFCs to promote e-vehicles.  

Ashok Leyland and Hinduja Leyland Finance have teamed up to launch Gro digital platforms, a digital end-to-end transportation and logistics solutions platform with value-added services for all members in the ecosystem. Through its digital freight exchange and wide portfolio of fleet solutions, such as fuel cards, FASTag, telematics, financing, insurance, and roadside assistance.

Gulf Oil Lubricants India and Gulf Oil International have together invested $50 million in the EV charging infrastructure space by taking a majority stake in Tirex (India-based fast charger OEM) and Indra (UK-based slow charger OEM with Vehicle to Grid capabilities).

Another business which is attracting significant focus is renewables like solar, wind, hybrid and BESS projects. The current portfolio of operational and under construction projects is already around 3GW, with plans to cross 10 GW by 2030, with investment plans to the tune of $3-4 billion. Hinduja National Power, which has a 2X520 MW coal-based power plant, is also exploring expansion opportunities.

“Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS), the digital services arm of the Group, is also ramping up aggressively, further looking at strategic investments in cutting-edge AI-based digital solutions to cater to its customers in North America, the UK, Europe and APAC”, says Saharia.

The Group also has Hinduja Tech, which is a mobility-focused global engineering, research and development technology company catering to global automotive OEMs and tier 1 manufacturers. The company recently acquired Germany-based engineering services company, Tecosim Group, for a consideration of $23 million, which would provide Hinduja Tech a strong foothold in the European market.

“We are in the process of creating self-sustaining ecosystems that leverage synergies between the automotive, energy and financial services sectors to bring forth differentiated value propositions to our customers and stakeholders at large,” says Saharia.