Hey, I can't stop. It's not every day when the subject of your interview is also driving you around. I have a very very special guest today and he is get ready set go Anish Shah, Dr. Anish Shah with us the CEO and MD of the Mahindra Group driving us during this very special interview in the Batman edition. 999 of these cars got sold out in 137 seconds and you can see why it's beautiful. Dr. Shah, thank you so much for doing this.
It's great to be here with you, Tamara, and I love driving this car, so that's easy.
Okay, viewers don't know, in the original plan, I was supposed to drive the car, but Dr. Shah clearly loves being in the driver's seat, isn't it?
I've loved driving from a very, very long time. So, the vehicles we have now make it a lot more fun to drive as well.
Yeah. But my question was, do you love being in the driver's seat? And that's obvious because since you've taken on the driver state at the Mahindra group, a lot has changed. Market cap of the group is up about 12 times. There's been a pivot in strategy as well. Let's start there.
Okay. It has been a great journey, but I would give a lot of credit as I start to the foundation that our leaders have built and it's a foundation from a value standpoint. We talk about being purpose-led and we've actually been able to show that being purpose-led builds the trust that enables it to perform better. It is a foundation from the standpoint of investments that have been made in the past. The Mahindra Research Valley is a classic example of such an investment that our auto business is now leveraging to create much better vehicles. The foundation from the standpoint of the people we have, the culture we have and that's enabling us to give results that surpass expectations today. So I will start as I said with credit to our founders or to our past leaders who helped build this and then our current leaders have taken it to a very different level. And to your question around being in the driver's seat, yes, I love being in the driver's seat, but more often than not, I have to be in the passenger seat or a cheerleader for our leaders because that is the power of a federation. The power of a federation is empowering our leaders in a very different way. And it's that empowerment that has made them successful.
You know, I'm quite impressed at how you're skillfully navigating Mumbai's traffic while answering all of my questions. That's quite cool. But I think one of the things, one strategic direction that you've given the company the time you've been here and you know first non-family CEO running this conglomerate three lakh plus employees there. You're in a lot of this is more than just a car company and that is something that you have stressed upon as well.
It is and that is often forgotten in the excitement of our cars and it's great to see that excitement but we have many businesses many leaders who have done a remarkable job. If you look at the last 5 years cumulatively auto has contributed 25% of our profits. Our farm business has contributed 37% of our profits and services which is often looked at as sort of an also ran for us has been a key factor in driving our profits as well at 38% of our profits. Our growth gems collectively were valued at 8,000 crores 5 years ago. Today they're valued at 56,000 crores and that's a level of not just value creation but positioning that leaders of our growth gems have enabled and these businesses are on a very good track to be able to be far larger over the next few years and be able to create much more value for our investors.
No, but I want to understand the why of it. Why the push to go beyond and in terms of revenues bulk of the revenue still coming from auto profits at 25% but why the push to go beyond the identity of an auto company or a passenger vehicle company of course tractors is a big part in.
Many we have been much broader than auto and we just haven't talked about it as much. Some of the businesses were not as profitable in the past which therefore also led us not to talk about. But what we see today is the Mahindra Group playing in 70% of India's GDP. That is what our businesses represent today. And for us to be able to make a much bigger contribution to growth in India overall and be able to take advantage of India's growth to create a company that is globally relevant. So for us therefore that's important to reflect the fact that the Mahindra group is not just an auto company. It's one that plays in 70% of India's GDP that has multiple businesses that are very well positioned. You look at aspirations of our businesses and the current performance as well. It's remarkable to see where we are. That's what we covered during investor today. And that again is a reflection of our leaders and associates in each of these businesses performing at a very different level. It also reflects the power of our federation and that's something that has not been fully understood. The power of our companies being able to transfer talent across the group to be able to take technology and be leaders in technology, learn across the group from that perspective. The power of trust that our customers have and all of these things collectively make a huge impact in terms of performance of our businesses and which is why our businesses have been able to perform far better than anyone else in their industries and thereby create the value that our investors are seeing today.
Yeah. So when you talk about the growth gems and you know we're going to come to the car and what the Mahindra electric story stands for in a bit but when you talk about the growth gems Dr. Shah not all of the gems are shining as bright if I may say so and you know investors look at it as well.
You would have been right on that statement a year ago really. Today every single business of ours is on a very strong path and doing very well. In some cases you may not see that in the numbers as yet but what we see from the products they have how they're positioned in the market they are on a very different trajectory than they were over the last year and clearly over the few years prior to that. So Mahindra holidays for example we're going to see a huge change you think in 2026. So let's take life spaces as you mentioned that GDV which is effectively buying land gross value that will result in sales and pre-sales are the two key metrics that the business looks at for pre-sales. Our goal for this decade now is to grow 14 times. The business has set out a number of 10,000 crores for pre-sales in fiscal '30. And for that we've had to grow our GDP dramatically which has happened already. 75% of what we need for the next 5 years has been acquired already in terms of land. And the business feels that a 14x number is less than what they ideally like. It's also a business that's a lot more profitable now, which is where we're putting capital into it. We did not put capital for some time because we had questions around profitability. Yeah, those have been addressed very well and as we put more capital the business wants to grow faster than 14x. So that's the kind of growth we're seeing in real estate. Holidays. We have just announced moving from time share to hospitality with an aspiration to be the number one leisure hospitality player in India and we're very well positioned again to do that with the resorts we have in India. We have 100 resorts in India today. We've got customers who are very happy when they come to our resorts and we want to be able to do that for a broader set of customers. Now you're also getting into a new space to create signature resorts and they're going to be very high quality resorts that enable families to go away to come together and that again is a key need for us here. So holiday is a business that is transforming itself. Logistics with a new leader we have is one that is significantly transforming itself now. And again you don't see that in numbers as yet but what you will see in logistics is they're going to be able to deliver a lot more and be the number one integrated logistics player in India.
So okay since we're driving on that one nice road in Mumbai where you can actually feel the power of the car that you're driving. Tell us about your love for driving where we kind of started this interview from.
My love for driving began a long long time back. I'd say even before I was in my teens, but I wasn't quite allowed to drive too much at that point. And has just grown over the years. Yeah. Across the world in different countries, beautiful roads and even Bombay traffic. I don't mind driving Bombay traffic at all. I love it. It's a great feeling. I don't drive as much now as I used to, but it's one that I've always enjoyed.
Okay. So, you do drive your own car.
Oh, of course. Of course. And it is phenomenal. And this is one I can confidently say for anyone who drives other cars, just drive the XCV90. Do it in race mode and it's going to be difficult to go back to any other car.
Why such complicated names with single letters for all of your cars? It's a bit like Musk's kids. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out which one is which. What is the philosophy behind that?
There's some complication we need in life sometimes. It's a good thing to have.
Okay. No, but is there a strategic plan or it's just names that sound cool?
It's names that sound cool. Names that in some ways link to some of our strong brands. The XCV 70 comes from the XV 50 which built a very strong brand and that's what we realize the power of brands is phenomenal. The Scorpio for example even today is one of the best brands that we have or one of the best automotive brands in the country. The THAR clearly is but some of these have stood the test of time and have stood out really well.
