If you had invested ₹1.25 lakh and purchased 1,000 shares of Maruti Suzuki in 2003, when it launched its initial public offering with a price of ₹125, you would be a ‘crorepati’ today.

On Wednesday, the company’s stock hit a high of ₹10,000 in intra-day trade before ending the day at ₹9,737.65 on the BSE.

Maruti Suzuki has not offered any bonus shares or stock splits since listing on the local bourses 14 years ago.

The stock, which has been outperforming its peers and the Sensex, has nearly doubled in the last 12 months alone.

In fact, it has been recording highs almost on a daily basis, pushing Maruti’s market capitalisation to over ₹3-lakh crore on Wednesday. The stock has grown nearly seven-fold in the last five years — it was valued at ₹1,504.90 on December 21, 2012. Since going public in 2003, India’s largest carmaker, which was established as a government-backed car company in 1981 in order to kick-start local car manufacturing in India, has seen its stock soar nearly 7,700 per cent.

Over the last few years, Maruti, which has a market share of about 53 per cent in the passenger vehicle market, has attempted a makeover: from being seen as an affordable carmaker, it has tried to morph into one that can attract youth with the latest design and technology.

Strategy pays off

The launches had a direct impact on the company’s stock: it jumped from less than ₹3,400 towards the end of 2014 to ₹4,615.35 a year later, growing at over 35 per cent. In 2016, it grew another 17 per cent to cross the ₹5,000 mark, and has doubled since.

The strategy has worked very well for Maruti. The company, which was a dominant player in the entry-level segment with models such as the 800, Alto and WagonR, is already the largest seller of premium hatchbacks with the Baleno, the largest seller of compact sedans with the new Dzire, while its Vitara Brezza is the best-selling compact SUV. Seven of the company’s models are among the top ten selling cars in the country.

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