Ashok Leyland's board has approved investments of up to ₹850 crore in two of its subsidiaries — the UK-based bus maker Optare Plc and Hinduja Housing Finance. The approvals were disclosed on Friday, the same day the company reported its first-quarter earnings, according to CNBC-TV18.

Ashok Leyland, headquartered in Chennai, is the flagship company of the Hinduja Group and one of India's largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles, building trucks and buses for the domestic market and exports. It ranks among the country's leading truck and bus makers alongside Tata Motors, in a market that also includes Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles and Daimler's BharatBenz. Its shares trade on the National Stock Exchange and the BSE.

Optare Plc is the group's bus manufacturing arm in the United Kingdom. Ashok Leyland acquired control of the British bus maker more than a decade ago, having first bought into the Yorkshire-based company in 2010, and its UK operations have since been brought under Switch Mobility, the group's electric commercial vehicle business launched in 2020. Switch builds electric buses for markets including the UK and India, where city and state transport authorities have been procuring electric buses for urban fleets.

Hinduja Housing Finance is the group's housing finance arm — a wholly owned subsidiary regulated by the National Housing Bank that provides home loans.

Separately, the company also released its results for the June quarter on Friday. CNBC-TV18's related coverage of the Q1 results reported that revenue reached a record, with the chief executive flagging material costs as a concern.