M&M to make new K2 series tractors; stock price hits 52-week high

Shares of automobile major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) rallied over 11 percent to hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 709.80 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday after the company announced that it will manufacture new K2 series tractors in Telangana.

In an exchange filing on Tuesday, M&M said that it will manufacture a new tractor series called the ‘K2’, exclusively at the company’s tractor manufacturing facility at Zaheerabad in the state of Telangana.

K2 will bring incremental investments of Rs 100 crore into Mahindra’s Zaheerabad facility and double employment in the tractor plant by 2024, it said.

The K2 series aims to create a lightweight tractor program for both domestic and international markets. The new series will enable Mahindra to introduce products across four new tractor platforms, in the Sub Compact, Compact, Small Utility and Large Utility tractor categories, covering 37 models across various HP points.

The new series will cater to domestic as well as international markets including USA, Japan, and South East Asia, the company added.

“As the world’s largest tractor manufacturer by volume, Mahindra is on an exciting path to developing the K2 series, one of our most ambitious tractor programs. This project is focused on diversity and scalability, to meet the varied expectations and different regional requirements of customers and markets across the world,” said Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Automotive & Farm Equipment Sector, M&M.

M&M’s farm equipment segment recorded a 20 percent rise in September quarter revenue at Rs 6,478.24 crore as against Rs 5,369.89 crore in the year-ago period.

In Q2FY21, M&M's tractor business margin improved to 24.4 percent from 19.3 percent, YoY and auto business margin increased to 6.5 percent versus 5.7 percent, YoY.

At 2 pm, the shares of M&M were trading 9.70 percent higher at Rs 698.85 apiece on the BSE as against a 0.34 percent gain in the benchmark Sensex.