[1]New Delhi: Largely unaffected by the recent carnage in stock markets, salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group is closing in on to become the country's first business house to attain a market valuation of Rs 6 lakh crore.
The cumulative market capitalisation of all 32 listed companies of the Tata group has risen to nearly Rs 5.90 lakh crore as on Friday- the highest for any business house in the country and almost double the market value of the second ranked Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Group.
The total market value of Tata group exceeds the combined market capitalisation of at least three leading business houses in the country - Mukesh Ambani-led RIL group (about Rs 2.75 lakh crore), Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Aditya Birla Group (about Rs 1.5 lakh crore) and Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group (about Rs 62,000 crore).
Interestingly, the Tata group's market value has grown substantially over the past one year, including in the past few months when the overall stock markets have been facing strong headwinds and have lost value.
In the past three months, the Tata group's valuation has grown by over Rs 80,000 crore or over 15 per cent, while the total valuation of Indian markets has actually fallen by about 10 per cent during the same period, shows an analysis of data available from stock exchanges.
Tata group, which saw a change of leadership late last year from Ratan Tata to Cyrus Mistry, has seen its valuation growing by over Rs 1 lakh crore since the beginning of this year.
On the other hand, valuations of many other large groups have remained either flat or have fallen in the recent months amid a huge volatility in stock markets.
While Tatas have the largest number of listed companies among major business houses in the country, RIL alone used to command a market value of over Rs 4 lakh crore a few years ago as the country's most valued company. However, this position is now occupied by Tata group firm TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) with a market cap of close to Rs 3.96 lakh crore.
In comparison, RIL's market cap currently stands at about Rs 2.75 lakh crore, while its only other listed group company, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd, has a market value of just about Rs 440 crore.
If TCS attains a market value of Rs 4 lakh crore, it would be only the second company in Indian history after RIL to breach this mark.
The data shows that TCS has been main force behind Tata group's soaring market value with a surge of more than 50 per cent in the past one year. The other major companies of the group include Tata Motors (close to Rs 90,000 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 27,000 crore), Titan (Rs 20,000 crore) and Tata Global Beverages (Rs 8,600 crore).
Other listed entities of the group include Tata Power, Indian Hotels, Tata Communications, Rallis, Tata Coffee, Voltas and Tata Chemicals. While the group has about 100 operating companies, only 32 of them are listed in the stock market, as per information on its website.
TCS currently accounts for nearly two-third of the group's total market cap, up from about half at the beginning of this year. Interestingly, it was after the listing of TCS on August 25, 2004, that the the total market capitalisation of the group's then 28 listed companies crossed Rs one lakh crore cap and Tatas became the country's most valued business house.
Way back in 1991, the total market cap of the Tata group was less than Rs 8,000 crore and Tata Steel was most valued among its 18 listed companies at that time.
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