Tata Sons, the holding firm of all Tata Group companies, saw its debt rise by about ₹7,323 crore over the course of 2017-18 to hit ₹28,329.11 crore.

Its debt had stood at ₹21,006.11 crore in FY17.

The holding firm, which became a private company in September 2017, had also rejigged stakes in various group companies during the year.

On a consolidated basis, Tata Sons’ net profit plummeted to ₹4,379 crore during the year under review from ₹18,432 crore in FY17. On a standalone basis, the net profit rose to ₹873 crore from ₹824 crore, according to the company’s 100th Annual Report for 2017-18.

Income rises

Now called Tata Sons Pvt Ltd, the company’s income jumped to ₹28,159 crore during the year from ₹9,985 crore in the previous year. Its income included ₹10,262 crore from profit on buyback of shares by Tata Consultancy Services, ₹7,569 crore as dividend earned from investments, ₹9,554 crore from profit on sale and redemption of investments, and ₹561 crore from brand equity subscription.

Tata Sons had 224 subsidiaries as on March 31, 2018, and along with the subsidiaries it had 34 associates and 18 joint ventures, it said.

Subsidiary sale

Tata Sons had “disposed of” seven subsidiaries during the year, including Taco Engineering (UK) Ltd, TC Travel and Services, Tata Capital Forex, and Tata International Trading Brazil.

During the year under review, the company increased its stake in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd to 67.88 per cent from 56.12 per cent. The stake hike was effective February 2, 2017.

It also hiked the percentage of ownership interest in Eurofins Advinus (formerly Advinus Therapeutics) to 43.29 per cent (from 24.02 per cent), it said.

Tata Sons wrote off its entire investment of ₹28,651.69 crore in Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and revised the provision for diminution made in the earlier years of ₹4,384.22 crore.

Telecom venture

“...the performance of TTSL, a subsidiary of the company, has been under pressure over the last few years. In October 2017, TTSL entered into an agreement for the sale of its consumer business, which constitutes a major part of its operations. The other businesses, viz, enterprise and retail fixed line business, are also under consideration for divestment,” it said.

As of March 2018 end, Tata Sons’ Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata held 13 lakh cumulative redeemable preference shares (CRPS) in the company, against 10.50 lakh CRPS at the end of March 2017. Narotam Sekhsaria held 3.2 lakh CRPS, down from 5.7 lakh CRPS in the year-ago period.