The Maruti joy ride: From iconic brand to bumper stock

Back in 1971, Indira Gandhi allowed her son Sanjay to fulfil his dream. Sanjay Gandhi had a true passion for cars and even worked with Rolls-Royce for three years. With his mother's support, ‘Maruti Motors Limited’ was incorporated and Sanjay became its first Managing Director.

However, the Emergency happened and the project was put on halt first, and then shut down. In between, Indira lost her prime ministership but returned to power again in 1980. She soon restored Maruti. Unfortunately, there was no Sanjay Gandhi this time. He had passed away a few years earlier.

The government started looking for an active collaborator to build Maruti. This is when the Japanese company Suzuki came into the picture. A joint venture agreement was signed between the Government of India and Suzuki Motor Corporation in 1982.

And then came the day everyone had been waiting for. The company launched the iconic Maruti 800 in 1983. You will be amazed to know the launch price. It was just Rs 47,500.

The first buyer of Maruti Suzuki was Harpal Singh of Delhi, an Indian Airlines employee. He was just one of the thousands of Indians who would become proud owners of the Maruti 800 in the years to come. Cut to 2022 and Maruti has more than 16 models and is the leader in most segments.

The company exported over 2 lakh 38 thousand vehicles in as many as 100 countries in the last financial year. In the passenger vehicle segment, Maruti sold over 11.6 lakh units.

Interestingly, for a very long time, Maruti enjoyed a market share of over 50 per cent. Currently, it stands at a strong 43 per cent and the company is working hard to push it back to 50 per cent. Its best-ever market performance came in 1998 when the company clocked 83 per cent share.

Just like their cars, the company's stock has been zooming. After 20 years of them rolling out their first car, Maruti Suzuki got listed in 2003. The success story has been quite phenomenal.

Maruti Suzuki stock's issue price was just Rs 125. And, on the first day itself, the stock jumped 32 per cent to end at Rs 164. And today, the stock is hovering above Rs 8,800 per share.

So, if you had invested Rs 1 lakh in a Maruti stock back in 2003, it would have turned to over Rs 50 lakh now. That's about a 5,300 per cent return in 19 years!

That's a lesson, isn't it? Like most wise investment advisors say - stay invested for the long term.