Tata Sons repays over Rs 20,000 crore in debt to avoid mandatory listing on exchanges: Report

Tata Sons, the holding entity of the Tata Group, has repaid over Rs 20,000 crore of debt to remain an unlisted company as it plans to give up its certificate of registration to the Reserve Bank of India, the Economic Times reported. 

Business Today was unable to verify the report independently. 

The strategic move will allow Tata Sons to remain as a closely-held company sidestepping the need to list its shares, which would have been required under RBI guidelines if the debt remained. 

In April this year, Tata Group had approached the RBI seeking a waiver in order to avoid listing its holding company and non-banking finance firm, Tata Sons.  

In October 2021, the RBI had issued revised regulations under which large non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) were asked to list their shares on a stock exchange within three years. The salt-to-power conglomerate needed to thereby be listed by September 2025 at the latest in order to comply with this regulation. 

The net profit of Tata Sons for the financial year ending March 2024 saw an increase of 57 percent surge at Rs 34,654 crore. Revenue also witnessed a 25 percent rise at Rs 43,893 crore from Rs 35,058 crore in the previous year.  

Total revenue of Tata Sons, the unlisted holding company of major Tata group companies, on a standalone basis rose to Rs 35,058 crore in FY2023 as against Rs 24,132.97 crore in the previous year, a rise of 47 percent. The income of Tata Sons is mainly from tech giant TCS which made a profit of Rs 39,106 crore in FY2023. 

In FY24, the total profit of Tata Group from its 25 listed firms surged 26 percent to Rs 85,510 crore from Rs 67,619 crore in FY23. In the last five years, the group profit has jumped over 3 times or 351 percent -- from Rs 18,976 crore in FY19. Revenues have risen 56 percent to Rs 11.12 lakh crore in FY24 from Rs 7.16 lakh crore in FY19.