Newsmaker: Ratan Tata

Business Standard — February 2, 2007

Things will finally come full circle for the Tata group. The Corus deal will mean regained glory for a business house that was a leader till the 70s when it lost its position to the Birlas and later to the Ambanis. Shedding its laid-back and complacent attitude, the Tata group is now ready to make the world their stage. For the group, the acquisition will mean a rise in the pecking order in India Inc as well. With Corus under its wing, the Tata group turnover is now estimated to touch Rs 1.5 lakh crore, outstripping Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries group which has a combined turnover of Rs 89,000 crore.

Prior to the Corus acquisition, the Tata group trailing behind with an annual turnover of Rs 70,509 crore. Post-Corus it is expected that the group will derive 40 per cent of its business from steel alone, unlike earlier when 60 per cent of the group's business came from IT, steel and auto. Not only have the Tata's raced ahead, but with a gap so wide it would take a while or another major acquisition by any other business group to catch up. Although the group started off as a trading house in 1868 by Jamsetji Tata, it had established 14 companies with a turnover of Rs 230 crore by the time World War II started. When the Birlas became aggressive in the 70s, Tatas lost their position as the first family of business in the country.

The group did stage a comeback in the 80s when Tata Steel, then Tisco, was turned around. Instead of economic reforms leading to further growth, the group floundered for a while trying to find direction. Its image became synonymous with that of a bureaucratic, sloppy behemoth. So much so, that few expected Ratan Tata to script a turnaround. All this changed when Tatas acquired the world's second largest tea brand Tetley Tea in 2000 for $407 million. Corus will give that added boost to the group that currently employs over 2.5 lakh people and has a market cap of Rs 2.49 crore [actual figure is Rs 257,636 crore] as on January 31.

In terms of number of employees Tata-Corus combined will employ 82,000 people, still short of Tata's largest employer —- TCS — which has an employee base of 83,000 people.