Mistry group seeks to raise up to $1 billion pledging Tata Sons stake

Mistry, whose son Cyrus was ousted as chairman of Tata Sons in 2016, is the biggest single shareholder in India's largest conglomerate.

The Shapoorji Pallonji Group, controlled by billionaire Pallonji Mistry and his family, is in preliminary discussions to borrow as much as $1 billion to repay maturing debt using part of its stake in Tata Sons as collateral, said people with knowledge of the matter.

Mistry, whose son Cyrus was ousted as chairman of Tata Sons in 2016, is the biggest single shareholder in India's largest conglomerate, and is seeking a loan as the coronavirus outbreak delays a plan to sell assets, the people said, asking not to be identified.

Mistry is trying to use his 18 per cent stake in Tata Sons, which is estimated to be worth as much as $14 billion, as the Covid-19 pandemic stalls economic activity across the world. However, he may face a hurdle: the shares in the unlisted Tata holding company are closely held and illiquid. A legal battle between Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry following his ouster may also deter potential creditors.

A representative for Shapoorji Pallonji Group declined to comment.

Mistry's Shapoorji Pallonji & Co had Rs 9020 crore ($1.2 billion) of debt as of September 30, according to rating assessor ICRA. The company planned asset sales, including solar power plants and road assets, in a bid to reduce debt by as much as Rs 4,000 crore, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said in August.

Founded in 1865, the Shapoorji Pallonji group, which has built some of Mumbai's landmarks, including the RBI building, is still better placed than most of its corporate peers, with total revenue of $7 billion for the year ended March 2019.

Tatas likely to take call on cash-strapped Air India bid this week

JV with Singapore Airlines, Temasek may submit EoI.

Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines are actively weighing the option to bid for Air India and a decision to submit an expression of interest (EoI) could be taken soon.

Sources aware of the development said the board of Tata Sons, the holding company of the group, would meet later this week and possibly take up the Air India matter for approval.

Singapore government’s sovereign fund Temasek is also likely to be a part of the consortium being planned for the Air India bid, one of the sources said.

When asked about Tata group’s interest in Air India, Bhaskar Bhat, chairman of Vistara and a director in Tata Sons board, said the group was evaluating options.

"We are evaluating Air India. Which company would not be interested in evaluating a sovereign airline of the country?...Whether we bid or not comes later," he said. On whether Vistara or Tata Sons was evaluating Air India, Bhat said, "We (Vistara) are a joint venture".

The government has decided to sell 100 per cent stake in the airline and has invited bids for it. The last date to submit bids is March 17 but the deadline could be extended if there are requests from potential bidders.

Officials involved in Air India’s sale process said a big reason why the Tata group didn’t submit a bid last time was the government’s decision to hold on to 24 per cent stake. “They were interested last time too. But a big hurdle was that they wouldn’t have been able to merge Air India with Vistara unless they owned 100 per cent,” another source said.

After its unsuccessful bid to sell Air India in 2018, the central government this time has decided to off-load its entire stake.

Tatas, the salt-to-software conglomerate, and Singapore’s national airline operate Vistara, which inducted its first wide body aircraft Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on Monday.

The wide body aircraft is the centre piece of Vistara’s business plan. It’s expecting that supremacy in long-haul international routes will help it recoup losses due to the cut-throat domestic market dominated by low-cost airlines.

India set to finalise long-pending defence deal with US during Trump visit

Trump will arrive in India on his maiden visit, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, Senior Advisor to the President of the United States Jared Kushner or daughter Ivanka Trump.

India is set to finalise a long-pending defence deal with the United States during President Donald Trump two-day visit to India from February 24, a senior official has told ANI.

Trump will arrive in India on his maiden visit, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, Senior Advisor to the President of the United States Jared Kushner or daughter Ivanka Trump, along with United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Secretary of Energy Dan Brouille.

The US President will reach Gujarat's capital city of Ahmedabad around the noon of February 24 and will address a mammoth crowd of more than 100,000 people which is expected to turn up for an event at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad on the lines of the 'Howdy Modi' function that was addressed by the US President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Houston in September last year.

"The fact that a US President is going outside New Delhi to other cities -- and if you look at the reception that he will receive -- shows the admiration that the people of India have for the United States. And that's the biggest message that will come back to Washington," the senior official said.

The President is also likely to visit the Gandhi Ashram in Sabarmati.

The senior official reiterated that POTUS and FLOTUS are most likely to make a quick pit stop at Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, however, the trip is subjected to change, considering the short time frame of the travel.

On 24th February itself, POTUS will arrive in the evening to attend talks in New Delhi. On Tuesday morning, the US President will first receive a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhawan as per protocol. Prime minister Modi could then accompany the US leader to the Gandhi Ashram (subjected to time availability if the Sabarmati ashram cannot be visited). The two leaders will then meet at the Hyderabad house and will call on official state meetings.

Both countries are separately working on a limited trade agreement ahead of the trip, after earlier imposing tit-for-tat tariffs on each other's imports. While there have been reports that a possible trade deal appears unlikely, the official conveyed, "the leaders are likely to discuss and possibly finalize not a complete but maybe a 'part' of a bilateral trade deal during the visit."

Tatas plan to move SC vacation bench for early stay against NCLAT order

The government too is getting active on the latest development in Corporate India.

Tata Sons, the holding company of the salt-to-software conglomerate, is looking at approaching the vacation Bench of the Supreme Court for a stay against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order to reverse the status of the company from private to public limited and reinstating Cyrus Mistry as a director on its board and on three group firms, a person close to the matter told Business Standard.

The NCLAT order on conversion of the company back to public limited and Mistry’s reinstatement as director on some boards was with immediate effect. Keen to get an early stay, the $110-billion Tata group may not like to wait till January 6, 2020, when the country’s top court reopens after the winter break. Tribunals such as the NCLAT have power to punish for contempt under Section 425 of the Companies Act 2013. However, for restoring Mistry as executive chairman of Tata Sons, the Tribunal has granted a four-week window.

The government too is getting active on the latest development in Corporate India. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) will examine whether the procedures were followed by Tata Sons and the Mumbai Registrar of Companies (RoC) before the conversion of the company’s status from public to private limited under the leadership of N Chandrasekaran, a senior government official said.

“Implementation has to be after examination. The RoC is simply a registry with no decision making powers…We are going through the order and if we find any facts have been missed out in the order, we will place them before the Tribunal,” another official pointed out.

In theory, the RoC can make the change, after following certain procedures. But, lawyers argued that a reversal in the status of the company would be tough. In September 2017, Tata Sons had secured shareholders’ approval for conversion to a private limited company. At that time, such a conversion, under Section 14 of the Company Law, required approval of the Tribunal before approaching the RoC. The law was changed with effect from November 2, 2018, delegating the powers to the Central government. “The regional director office under MCA can now give this approval instead of the Tribunal,” one of the officials quoted above said.

Market News

Liquidity crunch is mostly behind us, says Tata Sons' N Chandrasekran

Chandrasekran said the goods and services tax (GST) regime and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) are historic decisions.

The liquidity crunch that had gripped various sectors after the IL&FS crisis is mostly behind us, said N Chandrasekran, chairman, Tata Sons at ExpressAdda, an Indian Express event on Tuesday.

“There are issues here and there, but this issue (liquidity) is behind us,” he said.

On the possibility of India becoming a $5-trillion economy, he said, “I think it is possible. To achieve anything, you need to have aspiration.”

He added: “The Indian market has huge potential. There are a number of trends like urbanisation, rising middle class, etc, which are irreversible.”

He said the goods and services tax (GST) regime and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) are historic decisions.

“Whether it’s the IBC or the GST, to my mind these are historic decisions. I don’t think anybody will say these are wrong decisions, but the speed at which things have to happen has to be better.”

Sometimes, he explained, it is better to allow things to happen “in a fall forward manner” — one may not be perfect, but one has to keep getting up after a fall.

He however, added some decisions “that are large have to be executed right, close to expectation, otherwise they lose momentum.” Touching upon the banking sector’s non-performing assets (NPAs), he pointed out, “We are taking a lot of time to correct problems like NPAs. There is a slowdown in these corrections and they have to happen fast to bring confidence back in economy."

On Rahul Bajaj’s criticism of the Centre, he said, “This government works harder than anyone else. I have not found a situation where I cannot put my point across to them. However, I cannot say whether that input will be implemented.”

Article Source : BS

Indians are entrepreneurs at heart: Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata

"... a highly successful entrepreneur will find opportunities are greater in markets outside of India, so that is a judgment call the entrepreneur makes," Tata said.

Business Standard : In a fireside chat at an annual event organised by venture capital firm Chiratae Ventures, Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata talked about the importance of start-ups in India, their positive rub on bigger companies, and the levers that he looks for when investing in start-ups.

Referring to the growth of the ecosystem of smaller companies, Tata — in a conversation led by Sudhir Sethi, founder of Chiratae Ventures – said: “We are looking at the India of tomorrow and the day after, and the start-up industry is entering the global field in a manner where competition is open.” Himself an investor in a clutch of mostly early online ventures that include Ola, Paytm, Lenskart, and Urban Ladder, Tata began actively investing after he stepped down from Tata Group in December 2012.

So, what made him pursue that route and what did he specifically look for in the companies and the entrepreneurs that he bet on? “It was partly by accident and partly by happenstance but always in my years at Tata Group, I had looked at the sector with excitement. But there was also conflict with the group (businesses) and so when I was free, I made token investments with my own money in what I considered exciting,” Tata said, adding that “contrary to popular belief my pockets aren’t that deep”.

He went on to add that the exercise became a learning process for a few years because of the highly dynamic nature of the sector. “I found in my case that company selection was more by intuition rather than numbers, and by judging on the intent of founders and their seriousness more than any other factor to make (my) decisions, good or bad as the case may have been.”

Does Tata have a formula for what makes the best entrepreneurs? “I would say what drives entrepreneurs is a fire in the belly to do business better than has ever been done before, and an opportunity to make a difference to benefit society, with the tenacity and courage to see it through,” Tata said.

When asked if start-ups that were burning cash over extended periods were sustainable, Tata declined to comment but said the right time to go global for any start-up was ultimately not defined by anything but by the founder. “... a highly successful entrepreneur will find opportunities are greater in markets outside of India, so that is a judgment call the entrepreneur makes,” he said.

Equally, most entrepreneurs end up failing. So does Tata, who was privy to an arena of new contestants, have a checklist of indicators of failure for new companies? “It’s an insight on the founders and I don’t think there is a single answer, but the issue is of the clarity of the founder, the seriousness committed to building an enterprise with someone else’s money and the reality that not every enterprise will have glory all the way through.”

Have your cake and eat it too: How Tata can save JLR without selling stake

Had holding company Tata Sons Ltd. been a publicly traded firm, it could have raised equity relatively easily to help tide JLR over.

India’s Tata Group should treat the speed bump at Jaguar Land Rover as a timely memo: The $102 billion salt-to-software conglomerate can no longer put off listing its closely held parent.

UK-based Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc is burning cash on electric-vehicle technology just as the double whammy of a Chinese auto slowdown and Brexit threatens margins and sales. At average cash burn rates of 670 million pounds ($882 million) a quarter, the British carmaker may struggle to make it through another year, my colleague Anjani Trivedi wrote last month after it took an asset impairment charge of 3.1 billion pounds.

(Business Standard)

Had holding company Tata Sons Ltd. been a publicly traded firm, it could have raised equity relatively easily to help tide JLR over. Instead, Tata Motors Ltd., which acquired JLR in 2008, is exploring strategic options including a sale of a stake in the UK unit, Bloomberg News reported. Although Tata Motors says there’s “no truth to the rumors,” the bond market was a little relieved.

Investors’ concerns haven’t fully dissipated, and that shows the problem with the sprawling Tata Group’s structure. In the current scheme of things, the holding company and its 66-per cent owners — who happen to be charitable trusts — depend on payouts from software services provider Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. as well as Jaguar Land Rover to keep the empire ticking.

The insufficiency of those dividends became a sore point in a 2016 boardroom battle between patriarch Ratan Tata and Chairman Cyrus Mistry, who was abruptly ousted after less than four years. Borrowing on the strength of operating companies’ cash flows has a limit. Next year will see a record $17.5 billion of debt mature, according to bonds and loans data compiled by Bloomberg. The conglomerate must step up investment in order to generate more free cash.

Last year’s $5 billion purchase of bankrupt Bhushan Steel Ltd., which supplies metal to auto and appliance makers, is a step in that direction. The move helps group boss Natarajan Chandrasekaran cut Tata Steel Ltd.’s reliance on a less-than-rewarding construction industry.

Still, it’s Jaguar Land Rover that should worry him. JLR has avoided investing in entry-level crossovers — which account for a quarter of sales at rivals BMW AG and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz — because of its expensive focus on electric vehicles, as Deepesh Rathore, analyst at Emerging Markets Automotive Advisors, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.