Kolkata: The Tata group will scale up its holding in its major group companies to 30-32 per cent within a year’s time.

R K Krishna Kumar, a director of Tata Sons and a member of Group Corporate Centre, the central policy making body of the Tata group, said the group, as a strategy, has decided to raise its holding in its major companies to a comfortable level of 30-32 per cent within a year, if not less.

The primary objective of the move is to thwart any attack on the companies. The promoter holding in several companies is still below the 30 per cent mark. For instance, in Tata Steel promoters have a 26.41 per cent stake, in Tata Tea at 29.48 per cent, in Voltas at 25.69 per cent and in Trent at 26.48 per cent.

Krishna Kumar said that the group has been raising its holding across companies over a period of time. "In Tata Steel, our holding was as low as four per cent at one point," he said.

Krishna Kumar also said that the attempt to fortify holding in major companies was an initiative that the group had taken in spite of the huge funds involved in the process. This apart, another issue that is being considered by the group is crossholdings among the companies.

About Indian Hotels, where Tata Chemicals has a stake, Krishna Kumar said the crossholdings that are there among the group companies would remain. But the group is considering whether to continue with the practice of investing in un-related companies.

The group has decided to focus on seven business sectors — engineering, materials, energy, chemicals, consumer products, communications and information technology and services. According to Krishna Kumar, there would be a continuous effort for companies in these sectors to become world-class companies by following the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM).

"All companies would be encouraged to follow TBEM. However, if a company fails in its efforts to achieve the desired standards, then the company would be re-assessed," he said.

According to a Merrill Lynch report on restructuring, of the 85 companies in the group, the 11 biggest account for 85 per cent of the revenues and 90 per cent of the profits of the group.