Tata's hotel arm said it was still attempting to lure the management of Orient-Express Hotels, Trains & Cruises into talks over an alliance in spite of a rebuff from the US company last month.
Orient-Express has rejected repeated approaches from Tata's Indian Hotels Company, with the issue turning into a public spat in December when the US group said it believed such an alliance would damage the value of its brands.
RK Krishna Kumar, vice-chairman of Indian Hotels, which owns the Taj Hotels chain,said: "If there is any element of civil behaviour which we can expect from them, then I think we should expect them to come to some kind of dialogue".
The dispute with Orient Express has for the first time placed the acquisitive but normally conservative Tata group - one of the country's largest conglomerates - in the unusual role of potential hostile suitor and activist investor.
Indian Hotels, which is the biggest shareholder in Orient-Express with 11.5 per cent, first approached the hotelier in October to seek co-operation on areas such as joint sales and marketing, sourcing and other operational matters.
However, in a letter in December, Orient-Express told Indian Hotels it did not believe there was a strategic fit between "your predominantly domestic Indian hotel chain and our global portfolio".The letter created a furore in India in spite of comments from Orient- Express that its remarks were purely based on business rationale, leading Indian hotels to demand an apology.
Mr Kumar claimed there was a groundswell of support from other shareholders for the Tata group's efforts to start a dialogue with management on co-operation. "There's a large number of shareholders who are actually becoming indignant with us - why are we not pursuing the task of engaging with what we as the largest shareholder of the company are advocating that we should do?" He said Tata was "waiting" for Orient-Express management to come to the table.
Orient-Express declined to comment on Monday.
Indian Hotels will potentially have the firepower for any future action - it said last week it was planning to raise $600m in equity this year for global and domestic expansion.
But any overtly hostile bid for Orient-Express would be unlikely to succeed given the company's powerful poison pill provisions, which give the directors a controlling vote over most important issues that could come before the board. Indian Hotel's overseas push comes as it is also moving to protect its home market, with more foreign groups looking to enter India.
