Tata Sons to halve the number of listed companies from 29 to 15: Report

Tata Sons has decided to halve the number of listed companies from 29 to 15 in the coming months. This is being done to focus on investing in bigger entities that can compete ably in the marketplace, a report by Economic Times (ET) said.

The report quoted the conglomerate's executives as saying that it is speeding up its simplification to focus better on the growth and scale of the company. Also, it may lead to better cash inflow in larger companies.

Apart from 29 listed companies, the group has nearly 60 unlisted companies and hundreds of subsidiaries across ten sectors. Under the current chairman N Chandrasekaran, the company has been taking steps to consolidate its business to improve its efficiency.

Last week, the group announced a merger of seven steel companies into Tata Steel. It will include the merger of four listed companies. In March, Tata Consumer Products announced its merger with Tata Coffee.

"Several such small entities were created and listed with some specific needs at that point in time. Today, scale and cost optimisation will help the efficient deployment of capital and resources," an executive told ET.

In technology, the group has three companies, Tata Consultancy, Tata Elxsii, and Tata Digital. Tata Digital is unlisted, and the other two are listed.

In the automobile sector, the company has three listed companies Tata Motors, Automotive Stampings & Assemblies Ltd, and Automobile Corp. of Goa Ltd. Tata Autocomp Systems is unlisted.

In 2018, the company announced the consolidation of several businesses in the aerospace and defence sectors under Tata Aerospace & Defence.

In the airline business, the company may soon reportedly merge AirAsia India, Vistara, and Air India into Air India by 2024.

The company's retail business is also spread across several units, including Trent, Infiniti Retail, which operates under the brand Croma, Titan, and consumer electronics unit Voltas.