Mahindra, with Ssangyong in hand, aims to become 'global cult brand'

At Ssangyong Motor Co., South Korea's third-largest maker of sport utility vehicles, just about everything that could go wrong did in the past two decades.

According to KHABAR KHODRO, The company switched owners four times, faced bankruptcy and suffered one of the most violent strikes in modern Korean history in 2009. Workers in that clash took control of a plant for almost three months, using iron pipes and Molotov cocktails to battle air and land police commandos armed with tear gas and water cannons.

In November 2010, Anand Mahindra, a scion of one of India's richest families, stepped into the mess.

His flagship company, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., bought 70 percent of Ssangyong for $378 million.

M&M is part of Mumbai-based Mahindra Group, a conglomerate with 110 subsidiaries in banking, finance, information technology, real estate and resorts.

Mahindra, the company's vice chairman and managing director, says he's confident that M&M can turn the Korean automaker's run of bad fortune around. He says he'll invest in Ssangyong Motor's people and products.

"I see our relationship with Ssangyong as an inflection point which is going to contribute greatly to the future success of the Mahindra Group," Mahindra says.

The takeover of Ssangyong is part of Mahindra's drive to make his company a world-wide name in SUVs.

After acquiring stakes in three tractor makers in the past six years, Mahindra & Mahindra surpassed Moline, Ill.-based Deere & Co. as the world's largest tractor maker by sales volume in the year ended on March 31, 2010, according to the Indian company.

"We want to be India's first global cult brand," Mahindra says.

The purchase reflects the growing economic might of India as its companies pursue acquisitions around the world.

And its biggest acquisition to date is Ssangyong Motor.

Mahindra and his wife, Anuradha, editor and publisher of two luxury lifestyle monthly magazines, together own 0.07 percent of M&M, as of March 31, according to Bombay Stock Exchange data. She also has a 1.97 percent stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., according to Bloomberg data.