Tenneco Clean Air India is exploring opportunities for acquisitions as the auto component maker looks to broaden and diversify its business beyond the automotive sector, according to a senior company official. The company is considering options in industrial markets, including rail, aerospace and defence, while it is also looking to expand into automotive products that are powertrain-agnostic, which can be used in internal combustion engine, hybrid and electric vehicles. “We are looking for related diversification.
We are also looking for unrelated diversification. There are inorganic M&A opportunities that we are looking at. We are quite excited about it,” Chief Executive Officer Arvind Chandra told PTI. Tenneco is an automotive components company, with businesses in clean air and powertrain solutions and advanced ride technologies. Its products include exhaust after-treatment systems, bearings, spark plugs and suspension systems. One of the major reasons Tenneco is considering diversifying into new sectors is that automotive markets have historically been cyclical in demand.
An inorganic growth opportunity would allow the company to quickly enter a new, faster-growing area. For acquisitions, Chandra said targets should have strong technology, decent margins and a distinct market position. A global business with plans for India would also be attractive, he said. “It must have some sort of a strong differentiator. And of course, there should be an India story attached to it so that we can do something with the asset.” When asked which sectors look more promising for growth, he said: “I cannot comment more because we are exploring quite a few of them.” Citing Tenneco’s cash generation and lack of debt, Chandra noted that the company has the capacity to do a sizeable acquisition. “We are generating a lot of cash from our balance sheet.
We are a zero-debt company
We are a zero-debt company… We can do a good, decent, good-size acquisition with the cash we have.” Meanwhile, Tenneco is looking to broaden its core automotive sector business with an expanded portfolio across vehicle powertrains. “Our own internal strategy says that we want to grow. We want to be powertrain-agnostic, so whether it is ICE vehicles or electric or hybrid vehicles, we should have a product that fits into all three categories,” he said. Tenneco has a strong order book, which the management believes will help the company grow in double digits through 2030.
Chandra said its order book had reached ₹16,500 crore, from about ₹12,000 crore in the previous quarter. The order book represents contracted volumes, he said. New business typically takes about 12-18 months to enter production, followed by a ramp-up period. Chandra said a programme won in 2026 could reach full production around mid-2028. Currently, suspension products account for about 65 per cent of the outstanding order book, with clean air and powertrain products making up the rest, he said. This shift reflects rising demand for premium suspension systems, including semi-active technology and the company’s DaVinci product. “Suspension is growing much faster because it is disrupting the Indian market because of premiumisation,” he said. Tenneco’s revenue mix has also started to tilt towards suspension, Chandra said.
Historically, revenue was split evenly between suspension and clean air and powertrain but has now shifted to about 51 per cent from suspension and 49 per cent from the other businesses. Chandra said demand for its suspension technology has gone beyond the first automaker, with other manufacturers seeking to add the company’s shock absorbers.
