Mint ·
Economy, business and finance
Tata Sons IPO soon? Listing approved by Board as Chairman N Chandrasekaran to stay on for 5 more years
Tata Sons Pvt. approved going public and asked Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran to extend his term for five more years. This decision comes amid internal disputes and regulatory pressure for an IPO, which could dilute the control of Tata Trusts owning 66% of the company.
Tata Sons Pvt. is said to have approved going public and asked Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran to stay on for five more years, as one of India’s biggest business houses tries to keep leadership steady through the transition.
The board proposed heeding the Reserve Bank of India’s directive on pursuing a listing, according to people familiar with the matter. The directors also asked Chandra, as he’s widely known, to stay on to steer the sprawling group.
The Tata Sons listing issue dates back to September 2022, when the Reserve Bank of India classified the company as an upper-layer non-banking financial company. Under the applicable regulatory framework, Tata Sons was required to complete a stock-market listing within three years.
To retain its private status, Tata Sons later repaid its outstanding debt and sought to surrender its Core Investment Company registration. However, the RBI rejected the application on September 11, 2026, and instructed the holding company to proceed with an immediate listing.
The regulator rejected the request again on September 12, formally ending Tata Sons’ attempt to give up its Core Investment Company registration and remain outside the mandatory listing requirement.
Another key Development was that Tata Sons board approved a fresh five-year term for N. Chandrasekaran as executive chairman and set the process in motion for a potential listing of the group’s holding company.
Chandra last month said he plans to leave when his term ends in February 2027. His decision followed months of friction with Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata over the listing issue and capital allocation across the sprawling conglomerate.
Representatives for Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comments.
The leadership question comes at a sensitive moment. Tata Sons was confronted with a mandatory public float push, which entails tighter regulatory oversight. For Tata Trusts, which own 66% of Tata Sons, a listing risks diluting their control and weakening the board’s ability to fend off hostile takeovers.
Meanwhile, minority shareholder Shapoorji Pallonji Group had been advocating for a listing for months, saying it is essential to unlock value for investors. SP Group holds an 18.4% stake worth billions of rupees and a listing would help it monetize its stake and reduce costly debt.
Tata Chemicals rose 13.5% to its intra-day high of ₹831.00 per share on BSE. Tata Teleservices advanced 7.3% to ₹38.14 while Tata Investment is up 7.3% to ₹732.10.
Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles jumped as much as 6.2% to the day’s high of ₹319.70 per share on BSE. Tata Steel advanced 3.5% to ₹189.40, while Tata Motors rose 3% to ₹436.90.
TCS was up 3.2%, whereas Tata Power added 2.5%, Indian Hotels rose 2.2%, and Tata Elxsi gained 1% in intra-day deals.
Around 1.77 crore shareholders of listed Tata group companies could directly or indirectly benefit from greater transparency and price discovery if Tata Sons is listed, according to advisory firm InGovern.
InGovern said the size of the public investor base linked to Tata Sons’ decisions makes it difficult for the holding company to remain private. Its analysis showed that seven listed Tata group companies collectively hold 48,241 Tata Sons shares, or around 11.92%.
InGovern also noted that listed Tata entities have a combined market capitalisation of over ₹25 lakh crore and said Tata Sons should face stronger governance and transparency expectations.
InGovern argued that a company with such a wide influence across the listed market should be subject to the same governance and transparency expectations that apply to systemically important conglomerates.
The firm said a Tata Sons listing would therefore provide the market with greater visibility into the holding company and create a mechanism for price discovery. Its argument is that the benefits would not be limited to investors who may directly buy Tata Sons shares after a listing, but could also extend to the much larger shareholder base holding shares of the group’s listed companies.
It concluded: “Listing Tata Sons in the stock markets is the right thing to do.”
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
For about a decade, Livemint—News Desk has been a credible source for authentic and timely news, and well-researched analysis on national news, business, personal finance, corporates, politics and geopolitics. We bring the latest updates on all the listed companies on BSE and NSE, startups, mutual funds, Union ministries, geopolitics, and untapped human interest stories from around the world, helping our readers to stay informed on the latest developments around the globe. Our Coverage Areas 1. Companies: Comprehensive news and analysis on listed and unlisted companies, corporate announcements, corporate chatter, C-suite, business trends, hiring alerts, layoffs, work-life balance, world's top billionaires and richest and more. 2. Personal finance: Insights into mutual funds, small savings schemes like - PPF, SSY, post office savings scheme, stock to watch, personal loans, credit cards, top bank FDs, real estate, income tax and more. 3. Politics: Comprehensive coverage of general elections, state elections and bypolls, Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha, Parliament, PMO, PIB, finance ministry, home ministry, among other union ministries and government departments. 4. National News: From metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and e to untapped stories from rural India, we cover human interest, health, education, crime and courts, and law and order, among other areas of public interest. 5. Economy: In-depth analysis of India's macro and micro-economic indicators like- GDP, inflation, forex, fiscal deficit, current account deficit, interest rate cycle, economic recovery, RBI circulars, indirect taxes, GST, Insolvency and Bankruptcy imports, exports and everything that impacts Indian economy. 6. Geopolitics: Well-rounded and deeply researched coverage on US News, Oval Office European Union, Ukraine Russia War, middle-east crisis, royal families and global leaders like - Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping and premiers of other leading economies in the world. Meet the Team 1. Gulam Jeelani, Political Affairs Editor 2. Sugam Singhal, Senior Assistant Editor 3. Chanchal, Assistant Editor 4. Sanchari Ghosh, Chief Content Producer 5. Pratik Prashant Mukane, Chief Content Producer 6. Sayantani Biswas, Chief Content Producer 7. Ravi Hari, Deputy Chief Content Producer 8. Garvit Bhirani, Deputy Chief Content Producer 9. Akriti Anand, Senior Content Producer 10. Jocelyn Felix Fernandes, Senior Content Producer 11. Swastika Das Sharma, Content Producer 12. Mausam Jha, Content Producer 13. Riya R Alex, Trainee Content Producer
Catch all the Business News , Market News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.