NEW DELHI: India’s top vehicle maker Tata Motors is in talks with private equity funds to sell stakes in six units, a report said yesterday, as the company seeks to finance its Jaguar-Land Rover purchase.
The Indian firm, which bought the British luxury icons early this year for $2.3 billion, decided to sell off assets last month after canceling a convertible preference share issue when its share price tumbled.
Tata is in talks to sell stakes in Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co., HV Excels, HV Transmissions, Tata Motors Finance, Tata Technologies and Telco Construction Equipment, the Economic Times said, quoting unidentified bankers. “The company feels it need not hold large holdings in these subsidiaries... and will bring them down by 20-25 percent in each,” a banker close to the developments was quoted as saying. “But it would like to hold a majority stake in these firms, which are mainly supplying components to it or financing its products,” the banker added.
Tata Motors declined comment. But it said last month it would raise funds through a “phased divestment of certain investments over the next six to eight months,” preferably to companies within the sprawling steel-to-tea Tata Group.