Buoyed by the turnaround of three acquisitions of struggling firms over the past three decades, Raghupati Singhania-led JK Tyre & Industries Ltd wants to look for acquisitions again as it prepares to invest ₹6,000 crore over the next three years to expand capacities across the truck, bus and passenger vehicle segments.
Anshuman Singhania, nephew of chairman Raghupati Singhania and managing director of JK Tyre, told Mint that the company’s experience of turning around the erstwhile BK Birla group tyre business under Cavendish Industries, Tornel Mexico, which gave it two plants, and Karnataka government-owned Vikrant Tyres in Mysore has made it more confident about pursuing inorganic growth.
“We are not averse to inorganic growth and we are doing a lot of organic growth because we are setting up capacities as we have land with us. So, we want to fully capitalize on that. But we are always 24x7 scanning the horizon for any opportunity,” Singhania said.
The comments come eight months after the fifth-largest tyre maker in the country, JK Tyre, merged Cavendish Industries with itself, nearly a decade after it first acquired the firm in a ₹2,195 crore deal.
Deal radar
While large acquisitions remain rare in the tyre sector, with JK’s last major deal a decade back, Ceat Ltd’s $225 million acquisition of Canadian off-highway tyre maker Camso in December 2024 has put the spotlight on whether companies can tap opportunities to grow capacities and markets.
The New Delhi-based JK Tyre sees similar opportunities, even as larger peers MRF Ltd and Balkrishna Industries Ltd have largely bet on organic expansion. Singhania said JK Tyre would need more land for future manufacturing expansion, making acquisitions an important part of its growth strategy.
This also comes as tyre companies are trying to get into newer segments, with Ceat looking to expand its off-highway tyre business while Balkrishna is looking to expand into the on-road tyre segment.
“We fall very strongly with inorganic growth because we have been able to turn around a Mysore unit which was a government plant. We were able to turn that around. We were able to turn our Tornel which is in Mexico in no time. And then we took a unit in red, an erstwhile Birla unit. So, we have turned around. It is now like a blue chip for us with the highest productivity and efficiency and highest tonnage which is in Haridwar,” Singhania said.
As per the top executive, the company wants to bet on leadership in more premium segments, electric vehicle tyres in buses and increasing the share of exports in revenue to 15%.
Capacity race
Experts suggest that the time is opportune for acquisition activity to increase in the tyre industry, given that growth in vehicle segments has surged.
The expansion plans of tyre companies have become even more important as passenger and commercial vehicle segments are witnessing a surge in growth. Passenger vehicle sales grew 8% to 4.6 million units in the financial year 2026, while commercial vehicle sales grew 13% to 1.1 million units in the same period.
“The case for inorganic growth in the tyre industry is becoming stronger, particularly where acquisitions can provide capacity and market access faster than greenfield expansion. The Indian tyre industry is already around ₹1 lakh crore in size, with exports of over ₹25,000 crore, and manufacturers have invested nearly ₹27,000 crore in greenfield and brownfield capacity over the last three to four years,” Harshvardhan Sharma, group head-automotive technology & innovation at Nomura Consulting, said.
“With capacity utilization in several segments now approaching peak levels, the need for incremental capacity remains significant. In this environment, a well-priced acquisition of an under-utilised asset can potentially shorten time-to-market and create additional value if the acquirer can improve utilisation and operating performance,” Sharma noted.
Profit momentum
For JK Tyre, about 53% of revenue in financial year 2026 came from the truck and bus segment while 30% came from the passenger vehicle segment, with the rest of the revenue coming from two-, three- and other vehicle segments. In FY26, its net profit grew 52% to ₹776 crore while revenue grew 11% to ₹16,327 crore.
In 2026, the company’s shares have fallen 28% as against a 2% gain in Nifty Auto. A large share of the fall came after the onset of the West Asia war, which wiped 73% of its net profit to ₹44 crore.
The tyre business is part of JK Organisation, a conglomerate spread across businesses like cement, auto components and paper, among other businesses.