Commercial vehicles maker Force Motors said that inability to live up to expectations lead to the break up of its joint venture with Germany's MAN Truck & Bus AG.

Mr Prasan Firodia MD of Force Motors told reporters that "The JV never lived up to our expectations while commenting about the performance of the joint venture firm MAN FORCE Trucks Pvt Ltd (MFTPL), formed in 2006.

Last month, Pune based Force Motors had announced to exit the JV by selling 558,000 shares for EUR 150 million (over INR 1,050 crore) to the German partner.

Mr Firodia said that "Earlier, we were a standalone entity and were producing the vehicles under a licence agreement from MAN. Later they wanted to form a JV with a promise of exporting 12,000 units every year. However, exports never took off.”

He added that besides, MAN Truck & Bus got entangled in various issues globally such as developments related to ownership of the firm.

By January-end, all the formalities of the company's exit from the erstwhile JV will be completed.

When asked if Force Motors has any plans to join hands with a different heavy commercial vehicle maker, Mr Firodia said that "At present, we do not have any intention to tie up with anyone. We want to focus now on passenger segment."

(Sourced from FE)