The Hindu Business Line : Tatas may not have given relevant details on Idea Cellular, says Birla

The Aditya Birla Group has said that Tata Industries may not have provided relevant shareholding information pertaining to Idea Cellular to the Department of Telecom (DoT).

The Birlas said that the Tatas were required to give details of only five relevant companies to come clear on the shareholding structure in Tata Teleservices and Idea Cellular which was being held under a single promoter group — Tata Sons.

The Tatas had earlier told DoT that there was no single entity called the Tata Group and that there were 80 companies using the brand name of Tata.

They had also said that they could provide information on all the 80 companies and instead offered shareholding details of only Tata Industries. Senior officials in the DoT said that the Birlas have informally sought their attention to the cross holding structure of Tata Sons.

Senior executives in Birla Group said that Tatas needed to give details of only of five relevant companies, including Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals, Tata Power, Tata Industries and Tata Steel, information for which is available on the Internet also.

"Tata Industries could have easily obtained this information. There is a deliberate attempt to suppress cross holding information," said a source in the Birla Group.

Sources said that the five Tata companies under Tata Sons held each others' shares and together held more than 50 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices, though the Tatas had claimed that only about 4 per cent stake was held by Tata Industries.

Sources in the rival camp said that Tata Sons through Tata Power and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Tata Industries accounted for much more than that.

They also pointed out that Tata Industries and its wholly owned subsidiary in Mauritius held nearly 48 per cent stake in Idea Cellular, which was against the licence norms which prohibits a promoter group to hold more than 10 per cent stake in two different telecom companies offering services in the same circle.

Birlas said that the SEBI guidelines were clear on the term `promoter' and, therefore, Tata Sons, through its cross holding structure was the promoter of the telecom ventures.

In fact, a letter written by the Tatas in January 2006 to DoT acknowledged the problem and promised to bring down its share in Idea Cellular to less than 10 per cent by June 2006.

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