With the Tatas agreeing to sell its Scunthorpe steel plant in the UK to investment firm Greybull for a nominal one pound, the storied 'British Steel' name will be back in the now-ailing industry.
From the Sensex firms, Tata Steel, Eternal, Tech Mahindra, Maruti, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech, Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Airtel were the major gainers. Telecom operator Bharti Airtel climbed nearly 1 per cent after it posted about a five-fold jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 11,022 crore in the March 2025 quarter, mainly due to the tariff hike impact and one-time gain on tax benefits. However, Asian Paints, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank, NTPC and Power Grid were among the laggards.
'As Tata Steel we will obviously use group-level leverage to make progress where we want.'
There were certainly qualities adhering to the Tata Group, which emanated from the persona of Ratan Tata. Most notable of these would be the low profile he maintained, which sharply contrasted the in-your-face celebrity status, celebration of wealth and pursuit of importance many of liberalised India's rich, love, notes Shyam G Menon.
'The UK is more of a structural problem, and that's why we're doing the restructuring.'
Quoting Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman, the daily said the target could be reached partly by improving manufacturing procedures at the Corus plants spread across Europe. The Indian conglomerate Tatas had acquired the Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus for about $13 billion last year.
Analysts tracking Corus said the steel company's workers had witnessed nearly 8,000 job cuts in the last eight years and were, therefore, apprehensive of Tata Steel's intentions.
'When the bombing happened in the Taj Mahal hotel in 2008, that was a very sad moment, but he really took care of the people, took care of everybody and that was when you saw some of his best moments.' 'There are some things which we will never forget. That is when the best of a person comes out.'
From the 30-share Sensex firms, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finance, Eternal, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, Titan, Mahindra & Mahindra and Power Grid were among the gainers. Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, ITC, Nestle, Reliance Industries and HCL Tech were among the laggards.
Firms to find alternative export routes or face increased trade barriers
'It will take six months to one year to move to normalcy, depending on how the pandemic plays out in India.'
Tatas plan to revive, not sell the Port Talbot steel plant. The investment could be as much as $500 million.
JLR, Tata Steel Europe CEOs caution staff on high risks of leaving the EU
Corus plans to spend about $140 million for opening two mines in South Africa and Canada, which could produce 10 million tonnes of iron-ore a year by early next decade, while it is also mulling another mining project in Ivory Coast, the report said. The captive mines insulate the company from the steep rises in iron ore prices and give it a similar position as the Jamshedpur plant, it added.
No one is saying the steel industry is out of trouble. The financial crunch continues, and coupled with high cost of input, severely affected the first-quarter profits of steel companies. But most agree with Tata that the signals are encouraging.
The $12.1 billion Corus acquisition-the biggest global acquisition made by an Indian company-ended up as a millstone around Tata Steel's neck, points out Indrajit Gupta.
From the 30-share blue-chip pack, Adani Ports jumped over 5 per cent. NTPC, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Zomato, Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank and Maruti were among the other big gainers. From the 30-share pack, Hindustan Unilever, Titan, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and UltraTech Cement were the other laggards.
Gupta has expressed an intent to buy Port Talbot, Britain's biggest steelworks
In the domestic market, the Tata Group has lost ground in the passenger car business.
Tata Motors, Titan Company & Tata Steel come in at second, third & fourth slots.
At the end of 2018-19, the Tata group had a consolidated debt of Rs 2.77 trillion. Tatas not only plan to avoid big-ticket acquisitions for now, the group's main focus will be on improving key metrics and reduce debt, say Shally Seth Mohile & Dev Chatterjee.
Analysts say Tatas could sustain their current pace of growth, provided the group's "cash cows", such as TCS and Tata Motors, continue to deliver.
Leverage ratio falls to under 1; but group heavily dependent on TCS & Tata Motors.
ITC, Sun Pharma, Maruti, M&M, Tata Motors, HCL Tech, Wipro, Infosys, HUL, Bharti Airtel and Reliance were among the major losers. Kotak Bank rose the most by 1.59 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv. L&T, SBI, TCS and HDFC Bank also closed higher.
Benchmark Sensex closed above the 85,000 level for the first time while Nifty scaled the 26,000 peak at close on Wednesday as fag-end buying in banking and power shares helped stock markets recoup early losses. After a see-saw trade during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex rose by 255.83 points or 0.30 per cent to settle at an all-time high of 85,169.87. During the day, it surged 333.38 points or 0.39 per cent to hit a record intra-day peak of 85,247.42.
Five of the 10 best-paid independent directors belonged to the Tata group, followed by four from Reliance Industries and one from Wipro.
Tata Sons said dividend from 40-odd Tata Group firms had declined during Mistry's tenure while expenses had risen
According to a new survey conducted by consultancy major PriceWaterhouseCoopers, about 28 per cent of Indian financial services firms expect to buy stakes in European groups in the next five years and the same percentage intend to enter North America. "Overseas acquisitions by industrial groups such as Tata Steel, Hindalco, Tata Motors and Ranbaxy are clearly proving inspirational," PwC said in its report.
'It's an open secret that the UK business is structurally not in a great place.'
Mistry's strategy appears to be the opposite of the group's stance in the heady days of 2007
The British government has said it was "not prepared" to accept an announcement by Tata Steel and its European subsidiary, Corus, that there seemed no option but to indefinitely suspend operations at one of the latter's factories in north-east England, which means loss of around 2,000 jobs.
With a bid of 608 pence a share, Indian corporate giant Tata Steel outsmarted CSN's 603 pence a share offer during the night-long auction process.
But there are fears that any reform could be reduced to tweaking because the tax is so lucrative.
Tata Ryerson, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Steel and US-based Ryerson Inc, is investing Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.2 billion) for the Tata Motors' small car project at Singur.
Cyrus Mistry had put in place a strategy that would have pulled most of the Tata group's 'legacy hotspots' out of the financial mess from legacy issues and helped turn around the group's finances.
'The idea is to align the HR policies and work culture with changing times'.
It is believed that Tata Sons was unhappy with Mistry's approach of shedding non-profit businesses, including the conglomerate's steel business in Europe, and concentrating only on cash cows
Fourteen per cent of the $16 billion invested by Ratan Tata in M&As abroad has been written off by his successor.
Benchmark BSE Sensex gained 130 points on Friday after gains in index majors Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Tata Steel ahead of the release of inflation and factory output data. Recovering from its early losses, the 30-share BSE index ended 130.18 points or 0.22 per cent higher at 59,462.78 in a range-bound trade. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 39.15 points or 0.22 per cent to close at 17,698.15.
Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty closed with gains on Tuesday, following a firm trend in the global markets. Extending its previous day's rally, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 361.01 points or 0.60 per cent to settle at 60,927.43. During the day, it rallied 420.26 points or 0.69 per cent to 60,986.68.
