Sona Comstar sets sights on acquisitions, EV-focused order book to drive growth

Mumbai: Sona Comstar is scouting acquisitions even as it builds on a ₹23,700 crore order book that is increasingly skewed toward electric vehicles, the auto-components maker's chief financial officer Rohit Nanda said.

The company, which makes precision drivetrain components for automotive and railway applications, is sitting on ₹1,100-1,200 crore in cash with a completely unleveraged balance sheet. Nanda said no target is at an advanced stage, but the company intends to deploy the capital and may take on debt if a larger deal warrants it.

"Size should not be a constraint," he said, adding that a deal could go up to ₹2,000 crore or beyond.


The preferred hunting ground is technology or new product adjacencies - automotive, railway, and increasingly, robotics and drones, areas where Sona's R&D teams are already active. While a domestic deal is preferred given current geopolitical uncertainties, an outbound acquisition has not been ruled out, he noted.

The order book is likely to be executed over the next seven to ten years. Nanda said 70% of the ₹23,700 crore pipeline is from EV platforms - down from a peak of 80% a year ago but still the dominant share.

He was quick to contextualise the concentration risk, noting that only the EV motor and controller segment, roughly 10% of the book, is specific to vehicle platforms. The remaining components - gears, differential assemblies are powertrain agnostic - can serve petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles as well. "In a worst-case scenario, let's say tomorrow, suddenly everybody decides no EVs - only 10% of my order will go away," Nanda said.

The ₹23,700 crore figure includes ₹1,300 crore from the railway business, which operates differently from auto - orders are tender-based and typically executable within a year. Pure automotive order book is ₹22,400 crore.