Tata Group as British as any British company: Ravi Kant

S Kalyana Ramanathan / London November 26, 2009

Tata Motors’ Vice-Chairman Ravi Kant said Tata Group should be perceived as British as any other British group or company by people here.

In a speech delivered at the International Automotive Summit in London, hosted by the industry body, The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), Kant said the Group’s presence in the UK is formidable, with 19 businesses employing over 47,000 people in this country.

Kant’s projection of the Tata Group as an integral part of the British industrial landscape comes at a time when Tata Motors’ owned Jaguar Land Rover had faced some challenges in convincing the UK government to lend support in raising money.

TATA GROUP IN UK — BIG TICKETS
Target	Time	Paid
Tetley Tea	Feb-00	£271 million
Tata Motors European Technical Centre	Sep-05	Set up by Tata Motors
Corus Group	Jan-07	$12 billion
Jaguar Land Rover	Mar-08	$2.3 billion

The summit was attended by Britain’s Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Lord Peter Mandelson. Earlier this year, Tata Group was in a series of intense negotiations with Mandelson’s office for a guarantee from the UK government for a £340 million loan approved by the European Investment Bank. The negotiations failed to bear fruit, forcing JLR (Tata Motors) to raise money on its own. Since the breakdown of negotiations, JLR has managed to raise twice as much money (around £670 million) on its own from sources in Europe and India. According to media reports, the negotiations between JLR and the UK government broke after the group refused to accommodate a government nominee on its board.

Highlighting the significance of the manufacturing sector in the UK (that is today seen to depend on its financial services sector for economic prosperity), Kant said, “UK needs to take care of manufacturing and not just financial services. Even the great city of London cannot carry the entire UK economy on its back.”Nearly 65 per cent of Tata Group’s $71 billion revenue today comes from outside India. Outside India, Tata’s strongest presence is in Britain.