Osamu Suzuki meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: Japanese auto major Suzuki Motor Corporation's ( SMC) Chairman and CEO Osamu Suzuki today called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The meeting has been described as a "courtesy call" by the Prime Minister's Office.

Suzuki is in India to attend the board meeting of SMC's arm Maruti Suzuki India ( MSI), which reported 20.69 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 762.28 crore for the first quarter of 2014-15.

He had met Modi in April, 2013 when the latter was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, where the company is setting up a new production plant.

MSI has been under pressure from institutional investors, who objected to parent SMC's move to take over the proposed plant and invest through another wholly-owned subsidiary.

In March this year, MSI had decided to seek minority shareholders' approval after tweaking some of the earlier proposals for the controversial Gujarat plant.

The slowdown in the Indian automobile market had delayed the construction of the plant, which envisages an investment of Rs 4,000 crore.

As per the original plans, the company had plans to roll out 2.5 lakh cars annually by 2015-16 from the Gujarat plant. It is now slated to be completed by early 2017.