Sales up Rs 70K cr annually in 17-19: Tata | Economic Times

MUMBAI: The Tata Group companies, under Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran, have seen annual incremental revenue growth of around Rs 70,000 crore between 2017 and 2019. Further, return on equity on funds infused by shareholders has risen to 46%, excluding impairment, during this period. This was stated by Tata Sons in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday in response to earlier submissions by Cyrus Investments and other Shapoorji Pallonji Group companies."The current management has been taking decisive actions to strengthen and solidify the core businesses and foray into new businesses, correcting the capital structure of both listed and unlisted companies to eliminate risk on Tata Sons," the affidavit said.Cyrus Mistry, who was removed as the chairman of Tata Sons in 2016, had claimed in his submissions to the apex court that the Tata Group had an adjusted net loss of Rs 13,000 crore in 2019 - the worst in three decades.However, the Tata Sons affidavit - which essentially defended the group's performance under Chandrasekaran - said that Mistry had a jaundiced view of events. "One needs to note that business perspectives can alter depending on the vantage point one is placed in," it said.As per the submission by Tata Group's holding company, the return on equity (RoE) on capital infused by shareholders rose to 46% in 2018-20, excluding writeoffs."It is regrettable that for reasons primarily attributed to earlier inaction, Tata Sons had to absorb impairments and writeoffs. Excluding such impairments, the RoE (a measure of return on the equity infused by shareholders of a company) increased to 46% in 2018-20," said Tata Sons in its reply, a copy of which was reviewed by ET."The market capitalisation of listed Tata operating companies increased by 37% as compared to the increase in BSE 50 at 22% and Nifty 50 at 21%. In the same period, the value of Tata Sons holdings in listed operating companies increased by 55%," the affidavit said.Overall, Tata Sons invested Rs 28,500 crore in the operating companies to correct their balance sheets and support growth during Chandrasekaran's tenure.The capacity of Tata Steel India rose from 12.7 million tonnes per annum to 19.3 MTPA in the past three years through two major acquisitions and organic growth. Tata Sons also increased its shareholding in operating companies across the board.The Tata Sons affidavit also compares, unfavourably, Mistry's tenure with that of Ratan Tata."Under the tenure of Respondent No 3 (Cyrus Mistry), the market performance of Tata operating companies excluding Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Motors was below Sensex returns," said the affidavit.The submission went on to state that, "Under Respondent No. 4's (Ratan Tata's) tenure as executive chairman, however, the market capitalisation of Tata operating companies increased from less than Rs 8,000 crore in the year 1991 to around Rs 5 lakh crore in the year 2012 - an increase of approximately 60 times - more than three times the Sensex return in the same time period.""The complaints of Respondent Nos 1 & 2 (Mistry Group-promoted firms) are nothing but an attempt on the part of Respondent No 3 (Cyrus Mistry) to avenge his 'loss of face' because of his replacement as the chairman of Tata Sons," the affidavit said.