Indo-German business development – a current look at 2024

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2024 heads-up on Indo-German Business: Booming markets in India promise good development of trade and investments between Germany and India

There are mul­ti­ple en­gi­nes dri­ving the growth in In­dia:

• In­dia’s gro­wing young middle class with a ri­sing dis­po­sa­ble in­come has been dri­ving growth in con­sump­tion of both dis­cre­tio­nary and non-dis­cre­tio­nary pro­ducts.
• The Go­vern­ment has large in­vest­ments plan­ned for in­fra­struc­ture de­ve­lop­ment across en­ergy pro­jects, ports and high­ways and ur­ban in­fra­struc­ture.
• Fur­ther, there is a re­ne­wed push for “Make in In­dia”, ma­king large in­vest­ments in ma­nu­fac­tu­ring at­trac­tive for the pri­vate sec­tor.

Ger­man com­pa­nies are plan­ning in­crea­sed in­vest­ments to ma­nu­fac­ture lo­cally and mar­ket to the ex­pan­ding In­dian eco­nomy:

• The in­itial in­te­rest may have been be­cause of the China+1 stra­tegy for se­cu­ring supplies. But now the size of the gro­wing mar­ket, lo­wer pro­duc­tion costs and stable po­li­cies have led many Ger­man com­pa­nies draw up big plans for In­dia.
• In the last five years Ger­many has made in­vest­ments of about Euro 15 bil­lion in com­pa­nies in In­dia.
• So there is a strong mo­ve­ment of Ger­man com­pa­nies which plan to make new in­vest­ments in In­dia this year.

Thus, the ZF group has an­noun­ced plans to in­crease its sour­cing of ma­te­ri­als from In­dia by 2030 to a num­ber of Euro 2 bil­lion for sel­ling to lo­cal and in­ter­na­tio­nal mar­kets. Pe­ter Laier, a mem­ber of ZF Group's ma­nage­ment board, em­pha­si­zed the im­port­ance of In­dia in the com­pany’s long-term stra­tegy. "In­dia's trans­por­ta­tion needs are in­cre­asing, and we an­ti­ci­pate more ve­hi­cles on the roads in the fu­ture. Our in­vest­ment is a long-term com­mit­ment, re­flec­ting the growth po­ten­tial we see in the re­gion."

DHL eCom­merce has an­noun­ced plans to in­crease its pre­sence in In­dia ba­cked by a Euro 250 mil­lion fun­ding plan by 2030.

Het­tich is in­ves­ting in a new pro­duct to be laun­ched in 2025 which will be made in In­dia for the world. Mr. An­dre Eck­holt, MD, In­dia, Middle East and Af­rica said “there is a gro­wing eco­nomy and de­fi­ni­tely our in­dus­try is gro­wing. So if the ent­ire world is strugg­ling at the mo­ment, the sun is shi­ning right in In­dia and we are happy to be part of this.”

In­dian com­pa­nies are also ac­tively scou­ting for op­por­tu­nities in Ger­many fo­cus­sing on ni­che pro­ducts and tech­no­lo­gies which have a gro­wing mar­ket in In­dia. The lar­gest num­ber of tran­sac­tions in the re­cent past have been in the au­to­mo­tive sec­tor. Crafts­man Au­to­ma­tion ac­qui­red Fron­berg Guss, Im­pe­rial Auto ac­qui­red Me­tall­werk Bie­big­haeu­ser and Su­pra­jit ac­qui­red SCS Deutsch­land. Other deals in­clude In­fo­sys buy­ing in-tech and Tar­sons buy­ing Nerbe R&D.

In­dia and Ger­many are strong eco­no­mic and stra­te­gic part­ners. The part­nership is ex­pec­ted to be strengt­he­ned by the new in­vest­ments and joint ven­tures bet­ween the two power­houses. RSM Eb­ner Stolz is your ca­pable part­ner to sup­port you with your busi­ness ac­tivi­ties both in Ger­many and in In­dia. Ba­sed on our mul­ti­di­sci­pli­nary ap­proach at RSM, you can rely on our full range of au­dit, tax, con­sul­ting and le­gal ser­vices to help you suc­ceed in Ger­many and In­dia.