India's largest car maker Maruti Udyog Ltd is set to embark on an aggressive cost cutting drive and improve operating efficiencies to bring itself at par with auto major Suzuki's manufacturing facility in Kosai, Japan.

Outlining its business strategy in the draft prospectus filed with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India for the forthcoming Initial Public Offering, it said the company would further expand its sales and service network and increase availability of car finance.

The company would also roll out more models and variants to further increase its marketshare from the current 54 per cent.

Maruti also plans to offer cars and automobile-related services through "one stop shop".

"We intend to use our extensive sales and service network to make available to our customers a wide range of Maruti-branded services," it said.

While indicating that Maruti's sales were more than the combined sales of its competitors, the draft prospectus pointed out that the company's marketshare exceeded the combined marketshare of other carmakers by 40 per cent in 2002.

The Maruti plant had been operating at over 100 per cent of its installed capacity for the past five years, it said.

The draft prospectus has been filed to divest 25 per cent of government stake through a public offer in the joint venture in which Suzuki Motors of Japan holds 54.2 per cent stake.

Maruti said the move would secure repeat purchase of its products by existing customers and increase the revenue of its sales network.

In the draft prospectus filed with Sebi, the company has pointed out that it has access to technological prowess of Suzuki.

Government ceded control of Maruti to Suzuki last year after a Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) rights issue.

Government will have to exit Maruti after a two-stage divestment process, which includes a public offering of shares through which it would shed 25 per cent equity in the first phase and the remaining 20 per cent during the second phase by 2004.