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8. The TPO then noted that the assessee had the brand value of Hyundai, as evident from the 'Interbrand' valuation- which is one off the most respected brand valuation worldwide, the Hyundai was one of the top 100 brands worldwide for the fourth year in a row but the valuation of Hyundai brand has gone up from US $ 4.5 billion in 2007 to US $ 4.8 billion in 2008. He was of the view that the increase in brand value each year can be attributed to every vehicle manufactured by the group companies, and as sales of the assessee company was 18.07% of the global sales worldwide, 18.07% of the global appreciation in the brand value can be attributed to the assessee company. This amount was quantified at Rs 198,66,80,250.

13. In computing the increase in brand value, the TPO also took note of brand value as per Millward Brown Optimor and adopted average of the brand value as per Interbrand as also Milward Brown Optimor. He then proceeded to compute the adjustment at Rs 62,20,34,587on the basis of the following analysis:

Correlation with market capitalization The market cap of HMC is a robust financial measure that indicates investor perceptions about overall performance and can be employed to benchmark its Brand value. 
Year                           2008             2009             2010


Brand Value (in USD)        4800,000,000        4600,000,000 5000,000,000
Change in Brand Value (USD)                     (200,000,000) 400,000,000
Share increase/month                            (16,666,667)  33,333,333

[Total Decrease in Brand Value from 01.04.2009 to 31.12.2009 (9 months) (150,000,000) Total Increase in Brand Value from 01.01.2010 to 31.02.2010 (3 months) 100,000,000 Net decrease in brand value for the F.Y. 2009-10 (50,000,000) The above computations are rejected as being overly simplistic and based on erroneous logic as well as the rounded off data of one Brand Value organization (Interbrand) without consideration of the other factual and material facts of the case including a) increase in Market Capitalization and its correlation with increase in Brand value; and b) the creation of enhanced Brand value through increased manufacturing and sales of cars by HMIL If calendar years are considered, increase in Brand Value of HMC (average of the Millward Brown and Interbrand values) actually increases from F.Y. 2009 to F.Y.2010 - USD 3976.957 millions - USD 3700.622 millions = USD 276.335 millions.

15. As for the assessment year 2011-12, while the broad approach remained the same and once again the TPO accepted that the AMP spending by the assessee at 1.68% of sales are much less than average of similar expenses by the comparables at 2.16% of sales (at page 15 of the TPO order), the methodology for computing the increase in brand value was more sophisticated. The TPO adopted Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, on the basis of Interbrand valuation, which quantified the adjustment at Rs 253.44 crores. It was in this backdrop that the Assessing Officer proposed an arm's length price adjustment of 253,43,00,000 in respect of compensation that the assessee should have received, from Hyundai Korea, for brand development. Aggrieved by this draft proposal, assessee carried the matter in appeal before the Dispute Resolution Panel but once again without any success. The Assessing Officer thus proceeded to make the ALP adjustment as recommended by the TPO. The assessee is not satisfied and is in appeal before us, inter alia, against the same.