Suzuki Motor Company chief Osamu Suzuki on Thursday called on Finance Minister P Chidambaram, within a week of the government deciding to sell 8 per cent of its equity in Maruti Udyog Ltd.
"It was just a courtesy call. We exchanged pleasantries," Jagdish Khattar, MUL managing director, who accompanied Suzuki, told PTI in New Delhi.
Suzuki led a high-powered delegation, which also included MUL joint managing director Hirofumi Nagao and former chairman R C Bhargava.
The meeting comes at a time when Suzuki is firming up plans to set up its second plant in Haryana for virtually doubling production besides planning a separate venture with MUL to manufacture diesel engines and gear boxes at an investment of over Rs 3,200 crore (Rs 32 billion).
Khattar said Suzuki had come to attend the MUL annual general meeting slated for Friday.
Suzuki's visit to India comes days after the government decided to sell 8 per cent of its stake in MUL to domestic financial institutions and banks for about Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion).
The government holding will reduce to 10.28 per cent after the divestment, which would done through competitive bid benchmarking MUL's market price.