The Company Bajaj Auto is the flagship of the Bajaj Group of Companies. Bajaj is currently India's largest two- and three-wheeler manufacturer and one of the biggest in the world. Bajaj has long left behind its annual turnover of Rs. 72 million (1968), to currently register an impressive figure of Rs. 81.06 billion. Current Situation & Current Performance In FY2013, Bajaj Auto sold over 3.76 million motorcycles in India and abroad. This represented a decline of 2% over FY2012. Sales growth was flat for the industry as a whole. The Company’s share of total motorcycles sale fell marginally to 31.4%. Given extremely muted demand in India, the Company sold 2,463,874 motorcycles in the domestic market during FY2013, which was 4% lower than in the previous year. Share in the domestic market was 24.4% as against 25.4% in FY2012. Urban as well as rural markets were affected by relatively high interest rates on consumer loans, high inflation and a deep sense of uncertainty. Consumer durable purchase decisions were pushed back, and motorcycles were no exception. This was particularly true of models belonging to the upper end Performance segment, which represents a substantial proportion of Bajaj Auto’s motorcycle business. Even so, Bajaj Auto continues to lead at the upper end. It sold a total of ~925,000motorcycles in the upper end Performance segment in FY2013. Share in domestic market was47.4%. The Company’s key brand in this segment, Pulsar, is in its 11th year. To create excitement and increase momentum in the segment, Bajaj Auto launched the next generation Pulsar 200 NS in May 2012. It has clearly redefined the sports motorcycle segment in India; has brought new customers to the Pulsar portfolio; and set new benchmarks in terms of performance, style and technology. It has won as many as 12 awards for product and technology — including for the best product design across the entire automobile industry. Strategies & Implementation FMCG Business Model BAL now is taking a leaf out of the FMCG business model to take the company to greater heights. Bajaj has kicked off a project to completely restructure the company's retail network and create multiple sales channels. Over the next few months, the company will set-up separate sales channels for every segment of its business and consumers. Bajaj Auto's entire product portfolio, from

the entry-level to the premium, is being sold by the same dealers. The restructuring will involve separate dealer networks catering to the urban and rural markets as well as its three-wheeler and premium bikes segments. Bajaj Auto also plans to set-up an independent network of dealers for the rural areas. The needs of financing, selling, distribution and even after-sales service are completely different in the rural areas and do not makes sense for city dealers to control this. The company also plans to set-up exclusive dealerships for its threewheeler products instead of having them sold through an estimated 300 of its existing dealers. Other Strategic Issues Cash is strength: Bajaj Auto has been sitting on a cash pile for over five years now. Over the next couple of years, competition in the two-wheeler market is set to intensify. TVS Motors and Hero Honda are on a product expansion binge. To fight this battle and retain its hard-earned market share in the motorcycle segment, Bajaj Auto will need its cash muscle. A look at its own story over the past five years provides valuable insight. Better value proposition: Shareholder interests may be better served if the cash is retained to pursue growth in a tough market. This would also obviate the need to fork-out fancy sums as stamp duty to the government for the de-merger. A combination of a large one-time dividend and a regular buyback program through the tender route may offer better value. A strategic stake for Kawasaki would only positively influence the stock's valuation. Strategies for the Overseas Markets Bajaj Auto looks at external markets primarily with three strategies: 1) A market where all BAL need to do is distribute through CKD or CBU routes. 2) Markets where BAL need to create new products. 3) Markets where BAL need to enter with existing products and probably with a good distributor or a production facility or a joint venture. Earlier, most of the products that Bajaj exported were scooters and some motorcycles. However, in its target markets, like in India, the shift was towards motorcycles.

With the expansion in Bajaj's own range to almost five-six platforms of motorcycles, it had a better offering to export, also the reason for its stronger showing. For the last fiscal, 60 per cent of its exports were two-wheelers and the rest three-wheelers. Of the two-wheeler exports, close to 90 per cent were motorcycles. Bajaj has identified certain key markets, which hold potential. Its first overseas office established at the Jebel Ali free trade zone has been the focal point for exports to middle Africa and the Saharan nations. Egypt and Iran also continue to be strong markets for Bajaj. The other market, which would be a focus area, is South America, where the company feels it is fairly well represented in most countries, except in Brazil, the largest market. The company recently participated in a large auto exhibition in Brazil and found good consumer acceptance to products like Pulsar and Wind 125. The other focus area is the ASEAN nations, which constitute the third biggest consumer of two-wheelers. The biggest among them is Indonesia, where Bajaj distributors are looking to introduce eco-friendly four-stroke auto rickshaws. But two-wheeler market requires great deal of effort from BAL. Everybody is there with Honda leading the show. R&D Bajaj Auto has a huge, extensive and very well-equipped Research and Development wing geared to meet two critical organizational goals: development of exciting new products that anticipate and meet emerging customer needs in India and abroad, and development of eco-friendly automobile technologies. While the manpower strength of the R&D represents a cross-section of in-depth design and engineering expertise, the company has also been investing heavily in the latest, sophisticated technologies to scale down product development lifecycles and enhance testing capabilities. The Future Although the avalanche of motorcycles offered Indian consumers a wide variety of models to choose from, it also resulted in increased pressure on the companies to concentrate on cost-cuts, technology enhancements and up-gradations and styling. Their margins came under pressure as marketing costs escalated.

The companies were forced to reduce prices and offer discounts to survive the competition. Moreover, analysts were skeptical about the segment's ability to maintain the growth rate in the years to come. One of the major assumptions underlying the motorcycles rush was that if the market was considerably large and was growing at a constant pace, there was room for a profitable existence for all brands. In 2001, there were over 30 motorcycle brands in the market. However, with the top five brands accounting for more than 60% of the market, only 40% of the market was available for all other new brands put together. Despite the launch of more vehicles, the survival prospects of many of the individual brands were deemed to be rather bleak. Further, the growth in the motorcycle segment was dependant on continuing favorable market conditions. Analysts claimed that to sustain this growth rate, the segment would have to completely cannibalize the market for scooters and a considerable part of the market for scooterettes and mopeds. Considering the fast growing scooterettes segment, with high demand from female customers, followed by the moderately growing moped segment and the restructuring in the scooter segment with major national and foreign players reinforcing their presence, it was unlikely that the entire growth in the two-wheeler sector would be due to motorcycles. Analysts also commented that as the two-wheeler industry had grown steadily for eight years, stages in the product life cycle would apply to the field sooner, rather than later and the decline stage would invariably come some day. There was little differentiation between the brands being launched apart from styling as most companies had introduced their four-stroke vehicles. With the failure of the joint ventures, the expected introduction of cheaper Chinese brands, stringent emission norms and threat from major international players, the survival of indigenous brands looked uncertain. Constrained with the ruling price levels in the market place, limited infrastructure and lack of technological innovations when compared to their foreign counterparts, whether the Indian companies would succeed in generating the kind of volumes needed to sustain in the competitive motorcycle market, remains to be seen.

Recommendations Focus on High Margin Products: Around 50% of the two-wheeler consumers buy high quality products (products of executive and premium segment motorcycles). Margins on these products are higher. BAL should adopt a deliberate strategy of focusing on executive and premium segment motorcycles and three-wheelers, and is reducing its dependence on lowerend of motorcycles and scooters segment.

SWOT Analysis

1. Excellent brand presence and marketing in India 2. Extensive research and development focus and highly experienced player in the motorcycle segment 3. Widespread distribution network across India 4. Wide product range in terms of price, quality and categories Strength 5. Featured in the Forbes Global brands list

1.Not a global brand despite high volume production 2.Lack of performance bikes like major international brands and sports Weakness bikes & cruisers

1. Bajaj Auto says its $2,500 car, which it is building with Renault and Nissan Motor, will aim at a fuel-efficiency of 30 km per litre 2. Cheaper variants for tapping more in the rural segment 3. Premium sports bikes for urban areas Opportunity 4. Constant growth in the two-wheeler segment

1.Cheaper imports from countries like China 2. Entry of international brands Threats 3.Other motorcycle players have a strong brand presence